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University  of  California. 


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Daniel  Webster. 

»       lVn  v  H     Tulv  18M,  and  presented  to  Stephen  M. 
From  a  Dagnerrotype  ta.en  «*^**$££. 

(The  last  picture  from  lift  ever  taken  of  Mr.  Webster.) 


THE 

Webster   Centennial 


PROCEEDINGS 


WEBSTER  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


MARSHFIELD,  MASS.,  OCTOBER  12,  1882. 


AN    ACCOUNT    OF    OTHER    CELEBRATIONS    ON   THE    ONE 
HUNDREDTH  ANNIVERSARY 


BIRTH  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

- 

].I)ITi;i)  P.Y  THOMAS  HARRISON  CtTMMIXGS, 
etary  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society. 


'A) 


y+jj  u 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED   BY  THE  WEBSTER  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY, 
S3  Equitable  Building. 

18S3. 


.-' 


NAI 


A 


COPYRIGHT, 

1883, 
By  Stephen  M.  Allen. 


Electrotyped  by  ADDISON  C.  Getchell,  4  Pearl  Street,  Boston. 


PREFACE. 


Thirty  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  death  of  the  great 
Webster  fell  like  a  deep  shadow  across  the  path  of  our  country's 
progress.  And  though  his  loss  fell  with  peculiar  emphasis  upon 
the  people  of  Massachusetts,  it  was  also  keenly  and  profoundly 
felt  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  That  his 
death  was  indeed  a  national  loss,  was  abundantly  shown  by  the 
expressions  of  grief  that  followed  him  to  the  tomb.  No  man  since 
the  days  of  Washington  called  forth  so  many  and  such  eloquent 
tributes  of  respect  and  veneration. 

But  the  year  of  our  Lord  1882,  besides  marking  the  thirtieth 
anniversary  of  the  nation's  mourning,  likewise  brings  to  mind  the 
centennial  anniversary  of  Daniel  Webster's  birth.  And  verily  did 
the  shade  of  the  great  statesman  seem  to  be  born  again  this  year. 
His  spirit  seemed  to  traverse  the  land  and  flood  it  with  an  old-time 
eloquence  which  only  the  memory  of  a  Webster  could  inspire. 
There  is  a  long  succession  of  eulogies  and  panegyrics,  beginning 
with  the  proceedings  at  Chicago  and  the  Webster  centennial  dinner 
at  Boston,  January  18,  1882.  Subsequently  came  the  meeting  at 
the  Revere  House,  Boston,  January  25,  1882,  followed  by  the 
anniversary  observances  at  Dartmouth  College,  June  29,  1882. 
Finally  came  the  Webster  Historical  Society  with  their  celebration 
at  Marshfield,  October  12,  and  the  pilgrimage  to  Salisbury,  N.H., 
October  23,  1882.  Most  of  these  celebrations  have  been  published 
separately,  and  bear  ample  testimony  to  the  deep  hold  which  the 
personality  of  Webster  still  has  upon  the  affections  of  the  Ameri- 
can people.  The  present  volume  is  published  by  the  Webster 
Historical  Society,  and  is  specially  designed  to  embody,  in  a  per- 
manent form,  the  testimonials  of  respect  to  Webster's  memory 
called  forth  by  their  celebration  at  Marshfield.     It  was  supposed 


il  PREFACE. 

that  such  a  volume  might  not  be  without  its  value  to  the  friends  of 
the  Society,  and  not  without  some  interest  to  the  country  at  large. 
The  fact  that  the  President  of  the  United  States,  Chester  A. 
Arthur,  himself  a  member  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society, 
aided  the  celebration  by  his  presence,  gave  a  national  importance 
to  this  event.  Considerable  space  has  therefore  been  given  to  the 
reception  of  the  President  by  the  State  and  city  authorities  on  the 
day  preceding  the  Marshfield  celebration,  for  the  reason  that  the 
events  were  so  interwoven  as  to  make  both  days  appear  one  con- 
tinued effort  of  commemoration.  The  value  of  the  work  as  a 
memorial  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Daniel 
Webster  has  been  enhanced  by  the  addition  of  an  account  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Marshfield  Club  at  the  Parker  House,  January 
18,  and  of  the  Dartmouth  Alumni  at  the  Revere  House,  January 
25.  This  book  is  likewise  designed  to  set  forth  more  fully  the 
purposes  and  aims  of  the  Society  itself,  and  will  be  the  initiatory 
volume  of  a  series  of  publications  to  be  issued  annually  by  the 
Society.  The  first  chapter,  on  "American  Statesmanship,  its 
Relation  to  the  Purposes  and  Aims  of  the  Webster  Historical 
Society,"  is  from  the  pen  of  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen,  the  first 
President  of  the  Society.  We  are  under  great  obligations  to  the 
Boston  daily  papers,  from  which  we  have  borrowed  freely,  and  to 
George  E.  McNeill,  Esq.,  of  Cambridge,  for  valued  services.  The 
task  of  the  present  editor  has,  therefore,  been  little  more  than 

that  of  mere  selection  and  arrangement. 

T.H.C. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 


I.  American  Statesmanship 

II.  Preparation  eor  the  Webster  Centennial  . 

III.  State  and  Boston  Reception    .... 

IV.  Marshfield,  the  Home  of  Webster 

V.  Webster  Centennial 

VI.  Other  Celebrations 

VII.  Commemorative  Exercises  at  Franklin,  N.H. 

VIII.  By-Laws  and  Roll  of  Members 

IX.  Conclusion 


Page 
1 

7 

10 

36 

46 

154 

236 

246 

270 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Daniel  Webster Frontispiece. 

Page 
The  Presidential  Party  at  the  Webster  Mansion 

The  Home  of  Webster 41 

Reception  of  the  President  and  Guests  by  Mrs.  Fletcher 

Webster 51 

Webster,  the  Marshfield  Farmer 149 

Birth-place  of  Daniel  Webster 207 

The  Eide  to  Boscawen .        .  239 


Note.  —  We  are  indebted  to  Mr.  A.  N.  Hardy,  of  Boston,  for  the  two  excellent 
photographic  pictures,  The  Presidential  Party  at  the  Webster  Mansion,  and  Reception 
of  the  President  and  Guests  by  Mrs.  Fletcher  Webster;  to  Mr.  J.  H.  Williams,  of  South 
Scituate,  for  the  picture  of  The  Home  of  Webster;  and  to  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen  for  the 
photo-engraving  of  the  last  picture  ever  taken  of  Mr.  Webster. 


The  Presidential  Party  at  the  Webster  Mansion 


WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL  AT  MARSHFIELD, 


PKOCEEDINGS  OP  THE  WEBSTER  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


I. 
AMERICAN  STATESMANSHIP ; 

ITS  KELATION  TO  THE  PURPOSES  AND  AIMS  OF  THE  WEBSTER 
HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

AT  no  period  in  the  history  of  our  great  Republic  was 
there  ever  a  more  pressing  need  of  an  elevated  states- 
manship in  national  and  State  legislation,  than  at  the  present 
time.  Fifty  millions  of  people  are  waiting  to  be  practically 
taught  the  arts  of  national  union,  domestic  prosperity,  and 
that  political  faith  which  the  free  institutions  and  resources 
of  this  country  would  naturally  warrant.  That  these  free  in- 
stitutions are  inestimable  benefits,  and  that  these  resources 
are  almost  unbounded,  no  one  can  deny.  They  afford  every 
comfort  and  even  luxury  which  any  civilized  people  could 
reasonably  desire.  They  furnish  the  nation's  mind  with 
subjects  that  quicken  its  thought  and  discussion.  They  can 
secure  to  all  the  highest  growth  in  education  and  culture 
consistent  with  the  prosperity  of  the  country  itself.  Such 
advantages  place  the  American  people  above  any  other 
nationality  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  And  this  it  was  that 
led  Webster  to  say  on  Bunker  Hill,  in  one  of  his  most  glori- 
ous bursts  of  eloquence,  "That  motionless  shaft  will  be  the 
most  powerful  of  speakers.  Its  speech  will  be  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  It  will  speak  of  patriotism  and  of  courage. 
It  will  speak  of  the  moral  improvement  of  mankind.  De- 
crepit age  will  lean  against  its  base,  and  ingenuous  youth 


2  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

will  gather  round  it,  speak  to  each  other  of  the  glorious 
events  with  which  it  is  connected,  and  exclaim,  Thank  God  ! 
I  also  am  an  American."  So  should  we  say,  Thank  God 
that  we  are  Americans  !  Thank  God  that  we  live  in  a  free 
country,  where  free  institutions  prevail  to  awaken  and  keep 
alive  the  faculties  of  the  people ;  where  every  man,  by  his 
share  in  the  government,  is  called  upon  to  cherish  a  public 
spirit,  and  to  have  a  regard  for  the  general  welfare  of  his 
country ;  where  knowledge  must  prevail,  and  where  liberty 
and  union  are  the  only  basis  on  which  our  system  can  exist. 
With  such  benefits,  therefore,  and  such  interests  to  care  for, 
it  behooves  us  to  learn  what  means  are  best  adapted  for 
perpetuating  this  Union  which  Providence  has  so  wonder- 
fully vouchsafed  us.  Of  that  Union,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to 
say,  that  Daniel  Webster's  influence  is  one  of  the  highest 
and  most  controlling  forces.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  So- 
ciety, therefore,  first  and  foremost  of  all,  to  transmit  this 
influence  as  a  sacred  legacy  to  future  generations,  unsullied 
and  unbroken ;  reverently  to  gather  up  the  works  of  the 
great  statesman,  his  written  and  spoken  words  alike,  that  his 
integrity  may  be  preserved,  and  his  memory  kept  alive  in  the 
hearts  of  the  American  people.  Finally,  to  study  his  relations 
with  the  life  of  the  country,  that  a  better  appreciation  may  be 
brought  about  of  his  far-reaching  work  as  a  statesman. 

Chancellor  Kent  said  at  a  public  dinner  in  New  York  given 
to  Webster  in  1831,  just  after  his  famous  reply  to  Hayne, 
"  Socrates  was  said  to  have  drawn  philosophy  down  from  the 
skies  and  scattered  it  among  the  schools.  It  may  be  said 
with  equal  truth  that  constitutional  law,  by  means  of  these 
senatorial  discussions  and  the  master  genius  that  guided 
them,  was  rescued  from  the  archives  of  our  tribunals  and  the 
libraries  of  our  lawyers,  and  placed  under  the  eye  and  sub- 
mitted to  the  judgment  of  the  American  people.  Their  ver- 
dict is  with  us,  and  from  it  there  lies  no  appeal." 


AMERICAN    STATESMANSHIP. 


In  looking  back  now  and  examining  this  work  with  a  crit- 
ical and  careful  eye,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  Webster 
borrowed  freely  from  the  principles  of  those  statesmen  who 
preceded  him  in  the  management  of  our  public  affairs.  His 
acquaintance  with  the  history  of  the  governments  of  the 
world,  with  the  constitution  and  the  writings  of  its  earlier 
founders,  with  the  laws,  history  and  interests  of  the  coun- 
try itself,  had  served  to  establish  him  in  those  eternal  prin- 
ciples by  which  particular  measures  are  effected. 

Now  it  needs  no  great  prescience  to  determine  that  the 
highest  principles  of  statesmanship  which  the  fathers  of  the 
country  taught,  are  more  needed  at  the  present  time  than 
when  they  moved  and  spoke.     Washington,  Adams,  Jeffer- 
son and  Hamilton,  Webster,  Clay,  Calhoun  and  Jackson, 
never  taught  national  principles  in  their  day  that  are  not  as 
much  and  even  more  necessary  in  our  own.     Then,  the  issues 
giving  rise  to  these  questions  were  vivid  before  their  minds, 
without  the  ocular  proof,  while  to-day  we  have  them  before 
our  eyes,  and  can  make  the  application  without  any  doubt 
as  to  the  ultimate  results.     Our   politics,  descending  as  it 
often  does  to  the  grossest  forms  of  selfishness,  partakes  more 
of  the  nature  of  passion  than  of  principle.     It  includes  many 
different  classes  of  men  who  are  constantly  perverting  the 
right  uses  of  government,  and  arrogating  to  themselves  things 
and    principles    peculiar  to   their  own  selfish  notions,  from 
the  strait-jacketed  religious  sectarian  with  his  dogmatic  opin- 
ions, to  the  inebriated  free-thinker  who  can  see  no  virtue  in 
a  Christian  life  except  through  his  own  libertinage,  and  the 
rendering  of  all  law,  both  human  and  divine,  to  suit  his  own 
special  beliefs.    Again,  there  is  the  monopolist  and  the  usury 
class.     The  former  would  control  all  honest  effort  or  gain 
for  his  own  selfish  purposes,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  legitimate 
business.     The  latter  would  carry  himself  according  to  law, 
take  the  pound  of  flesh  and  rob  the  poor  man  of  his  last 


4  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

dollar,  if  the  bond  but  permitted.  Again,  there  is  the  spec- 
ulative class,  who  will  not  labor  in  any  profession,  but  de- 
liberately plan  out  a  life  —  and  far  as  possible  live  it  —  of 
sponging  the  community  out  of  what  they  can  get,  regardless 
of  the  consequences.  Not  the  least  dangerous  of  all  these  is 
the  class  not  confined  to  any  particular  party,  who  would 
barter  all  principle  and  the  country's  good  for  personal 
preferment,  and  are  determined  to  live  at  the  expense  of  the 
government  at  all  hazards.  Such  men  are  the  pests  of 
society  and  of  all  good  government,  and  need  to  be  watched 
more  closely  than  any  other  class  .of  our  citizens.  It  is  a 
melancholy  fact  that  they  are  not  confined  to  ward  politi- 
cians alone,  but  rise  sometimes  to  the  higher  positions  of  our 
political  society.  It  is,  therefore,  the  purpose  of  this  Society 
not  only  to  perpetuate  the  name  and  influence  of  Webster, 
but  to  awaken,  if  possible,  in  the  minds  of  the  young  an 
increasing  interest  in  the  principles  of  government  taught  by 
the  fathers  of  the  Kepublic,  and  repeatedly  enunciated  in 
each  succeeding  decade  of  our  history  by  the  distinguished 
statesmen  of  the  different  political  parties.  The  work  of  the 
present  must  be  to  bring  together  a  majority  to  remedy  these 
evils,  and  maintain  a  pure  and  righteous  government,  and  to 
strive  to  educate  the  minority  to  appreciate  and  support  it 
with  their  hearty  co-operation. 

A  government  protecting  all  in  their  religious,  political, 
economic  and  social  rights,  encouraging  all,  upholding  all 
and  fostering  all  alike, — this  was  what  Webster  sought  to 
buildup;  this  was  the  aim  of  his  whole  life  and  the  key- 
note to  his  whole  existence.  And  herein  lies  the  innate  power 
of  the  Webster  Historical  Society.  It  should  seek  to  study 
and  propagate  national,  unpartisan  principles,  and  the  im- 
portance of  this  study  cannot  be  too  highly  valued  or  too 
faithfully  prosecuted.  "It  is  the  moral  character  of  his  pub- 
lic conduct,"  says  the  scholarly  Curtis,  "the  unselfish  and 


AMERICAN   STATESMANSHIP.  5 

unsectional  scope  of  his  patriotism,  the  grandeur  of  his  views, 
which  could  take  in  the  welfare  of  a  great  country  and  stretch 
beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  local  interests  and  sectional 
feelings,  .  .  .  these  are  the  traits  in  Mr.  Webster's  public 
character  about  which  the  men  of  the  present  day  are  most 
concerned.  Teach  them,  I  pray  you,  by  precept  and  by 
example,  that  what  is  now  needed  for  the  welfare  and  happi- 
ness of  this  people  is  to  imitate  his  regard  for  the  rights,  the 
feelings  and  the  interests  of  all  sections,  and  to  love  with 
equal  affection  all  who  bear  the  name  of  Americans  and  who 
honor  the  flag  of  the  Union  as  the  symbol  of  their  country." 

This  idea  regarding  the  real  character  of  Webster's  abiding 
influence  for  the  cause  of  the  Union  is  unquestionably  the 
only  true  one.  And  with  all  his  power  and  greatness 
Daniel  Webster  well  knew  just  what  the  nature  of  his  sur- 
viving influence  would  be.  As  long  ago  as  1850,  in  an  inter- 
view which  the  writer  had  with  him,  he  expressed  the  same 
idea,  and  then  it  was  we  got  the  first  inspirations  for  the 
establishment  of  this  Society.  This  fundamental  idea  of 
transmitting  his  mighty  influence  as  defender  of  the  Union 
furnished  the  ground- work  of  our  plan.  But  it  was  not  from 
this  alone  —  it  was  from  Webster's  own  acts — that  we  got  our 
earliest  encouragement. 

In  1848,  at  a  meeting  held  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  with  some 
private  friends,  a  question  of  establishing  lyceums  for  young 
men  and  assisting  them  in  the  study  of  the  history  of  their 
country  came  up  for  discussion.  There  were  present  Judge 
Huntington,  of  Indiana,  Hamilton  Smith,  of  Kentucky,  and 
others.  Subsequently  a  similar  meeting  was  held  at  the 
house  of  Thomas  Buchanan  Read,  of  Cincinnati.  I  was  re- 
quested by  the  first-named  gentlemen  to  speak  to  Mr.  Web- 
ster about  furnishing  his  own  speeches  to  help  along  the 
cause  of  political  education.  I  wrote  him  on  the  subject  in 
1850,  and  he  sent  me  at  Boston  a  boxful  of  speeches  in  pam- 


6  THE   WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

phlet  form,  and  soon  came  in  person  to  my  office  to  help 
make  a  selection.  Five  hundred  of  these  speeches  were  dis- 
tributed by  me  in  the  West.  This  was  the  beginning.  The 
political  animosities  preceding  and  the  concentration  of  energy 
during  the  war,  rendered  it  impossible  to  continue  the  work 
or  to  organize  a  society  of  this  sort,  even  with  the  help  of 
Fletcher  Webster.  It  Avas  not  until  the  death  of  Peter  Har- 
vey, and  the  appearance  of  his  volume,  that  the  other  friends 
of  Mr.  Webster  found  it  practicable  to  organize  a  permanent 
body. 

There  was  then  a  renewed  disposition  to  recognize  and  dis- 
charge the  long-standing  debt  of  justice  and  gratitude  which 
the  country  owed  to  the  memory  of  Daniel  Webster.  On 
January  18,  1878,  the  first  regular  meeting  was  held,  and  the 
organization  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  was  perma- 
nently effected.  Its  subsequent  history  may  be  found  among 
its  records  and  in  the  books  of  the  Society.  With  its  pres- 
ent membership  of  six  hundred  names,  including  the  most 
distinguished  men  of  the  country  at  large,  it  has  a  sufficient 
guarantee  for  its  future  existence  and  a  wide  career  of  use- 
fulness in  the  field  it  has  chosen. 


PREPARATIONS. 


II. 


PREPAEATIOXS  FOE  THE  WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

THE  Society  having  determined  to  hold  a  centennial  cele- 
bration at  Marshfield,  in  memory  of  the  great  states- 
man, and  the  State  and  city  authorities  having  cordially 
entered  into  their  plans  for  the  demonstration,  the  press  of 
the  country  at  once  took  up  and  greatly  popularized  the  ob- 
ject, and,  from  the  beginning,  forwarded  with  great  liberality 
the  views  and  purposes  of  the  Society.  Invitations  were  ex- 
tended to  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  his  Cabinet, 
and  other  distinguished  statesmen  throughout  the  country, 
to  attend  as  guests  of  the  Society.  The  Governors  of  the 
several  New  England  States  with  their  military  staffs  were 
invited,  as  were  also  many  distinguished  literary  and  scien- 
tific gentlemen,  who  cordially  responded  to  the  invitations. 
The  twelfth  day  of  October  was  selected  as  the  day  for  the 
meeting  at  Marshfield.  The  merchants  of  Boston  provided 
liberal  contributions  for  paying  the  expenses.  The  ancient 
and  Honorable  Artillery  Company  kindly  accepted  the  invi- 
tation of  the  Society  to  do  full  escort  duty  on  the  occasion, 
both  in  Boston  and  at  Marshfield,  and  the  Old  Colony  Rail- 
road Company  at  once  tendered  cars  for  the  President  and 
invited  guests  free  of  charge.  The  following  Committees 
were  appointed  to  make  arrangements  for  the  Celebration  :  — 

General  Arrangements.  —  Stephen  M.  Allen,  F.  O.  Prince,  Albert 
Palmer,  W.  W.  Clapp,  R.  M.  Pulsifer,  George  E.  McNeill. 

Finance.  —  Stillman  B.  Allen,  E.  S.  Tobey,  W.  B.  Wood,  Roland 
Worthington,  Peter  Butler. 

Invitations  and  Receptions.  —  Oliver  Ames,  E.  S.  Tobey,  George 
C.  Richardson,  Roland  Worthington,  G.  Washington  Warren. 

Arrangements  for  Tents,  &c,  at  Marshfield.  —  R.  M.  Yale, 
Henry  W.  Nelson,  Edwin  Adams,  Frank  B.  Devereaux. 


8  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

Printing.  —  John  II.  Butler,  F.  M.  Boutwell,  T.  II.  Cummings, 
Addison  C.  Getchell. 

Entertainments  at  Marshfield.  —  John  H.  Butler,  Frank  B.  Dev- 
ereaux,  Stephen  M.  Allen. 

Transportation.  —  Edward  F.  Thayer,  Jas.  R.  Kendrick,  Franeis  M. 
Boutwell. 

Staff  of  the  President  of  the  Society.  —  Horace  G.  Allen,  Frank 
B.  Devereaux,  Thomas  Nelson,  Thomas  Aspinwall,  Charles  A.  Prince, 
Thos.  S.  Lockwood,  Wm.  J.  Wright,  E.  S.  Tobey,  Jr.,  John  II.  Butler. 
E.  W.  Hall. 

The  Committees  were  assisted  in  their  work  by  the  officers 
of  the  Society  and  members  of  the  Executive  Committee,  who 
were  as  follows  :  — 

Officers  of  the  Society.  —  Stephen  M.  Allen,  President ;  Francis 
M.  Boutwell,  Treasurer ;  Thomas  H.  Cummings,  Secretary. 

Executive  Committee. —Albert  Palmer,  Stillman  B.  Allen,  Henry 
W.  Nelson,  Wm.  II.  S.  Jordan,  Theo.  II.  Bell,  John  D.  Long,  A.  E. 
Pillsbury. 

The  following  Programme  was  arranged  for  the  day's  pro- 
ceedings :  — 

PROGRAMME  AT  THE  TOMB. 

Dirge.  —  By  Boston  City  Band. 

Original  Hymn.  —  Air,  "  Zion."     (An  old  favorite  of  Mr.  Webster.) 

Prayer.  —  Rev.  Ebenezer  Alden.  D.D. 

Address.  —  By  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen. 

Poem.  — By  W.  C.  Wilkinson. 

Singing  of  Selections  from  Longfellow 's  "  Psalm  of  Life." 


PROGRAMME  IN  THE  TENT. 
Dinner. 

Announcement  of  Officers  of  the  Society. 
Address  of  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  John  D.  Long. 
Response.  —  By  the  President,  Chester  A.  Arthur. 
Reading  of  Unpublished  Manuscript.  —  By  Stillman  B.  Allen. 
"  The  United  States  Senate."— Hon.  Henry  L.  Dawes. 
uThe  New  England  States."  — Hon.  Chas.  H.  Bell,  Governor  of  New 
Hampshire. 

"  The  City  of  Boston."  — Hon.  Samuel  A.  Green,  Mayor  of  Boston. 
"  Marshfield."  — Rev.  Ebenezer  Alden. 
"Dartmouth  College."  — President  S.  C.  Bartlett. 
"Harvard  College."  — Hon.  Geo.  B.  Loring. 


PREPARATIONS.  9 

14  N.E.  Historic,  Genealogical  Society."'  —  Hon.  Marshall  P.-  Wilder. 
"Pilgrim  Society."  —  Hon.  Thomas  Russell. 

lt  The  Relation  of  Statesmanship  to  Commerce."  —  Hon.  Alexander  H. 
Rice. 

Concluding  Address.  — Hon.  Geo.  S.  Boutwell. 

Letters  from  Distinguished  Men. 

Resolutions  of  Thanks,  introduced  by  Secretary  T.  H.  Cummings. 


10  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 


III. 

THE  STATE  AXD  BOSTON  RECEPTION. 

THE  fact  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  was  to 
be  the  guest  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  on 
October  12,  led  the  State  authorities  and  the  city  government 
of  Boston  to  extend  an  invitation  to  the  President  requesting 
him  to  accept  a  reception  at  their  hands. 

The  President,  being  unable  to  extend  his  proposed  visit, 
consented  to  anticipate  it  by  one  day.  A  joint  programme 
was  armnged,  consisting  of  a  grand  review  of  the  entire  State 
militia,  a  procession,  a  reception  at  Faneuil  Hall,  a  drive  in 
the  suburbs,  a  dinner  and  reception  at  the  Brunswick  Hotel. 
In  accordance  with  this  plan  the  Presidential  party  left  New 
York  at  5.15  p.m.  October  10,  via  the  Fall  Kiver  Line,  steamer 
"Old  Colony." 

The  Presidential  party  consisted  of — 

Chester  A.  Arthur,  President  of  the  United  States. 

Hon.  Robert  T.  Lincoln,  Secretary  of  War. 

Hon.  W.  E.  Chandler,  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

First  Assistant  Postmaster  General  .Hatton. 

Hon.  Daniel  G.  Eollins,  Surrogate  of  New  York. 

C.  E.  Miller,  Esq.,  of  New  York. 

W.  M.  Cooper,  Esq.,  of  New  York. 

Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen,  of  Boston,  President  of  the  Webster  Historical 
Society. 

T.  H.  Cummings,  Esq.,  Secretary  of  the  Wrebster  Historical  Society. 

Hon.  C.  F.  Choate,  President  of  the  Old  Colony  Eailroad  and  Steam- 
boat Companies. 

Cornelius  N.  Bliss,  Esq.,  of  Bliss,  Fabyan  &  Co.,  New  York,  Director 
of  the  Old  Colony  Railroad  Company. 

Chester  A.  Arthur,  Jr. 

Fred  T.  Phillips,  Esq.,  Private  Secretary  to  the  President. 

As  the  steamer  left  the  pier  the  crowd  gave  three  hearty 
cheers,  and  when  rounding  the  Battery  and  headed  up  East 


STATE    AXD   BOSTON   RECEPTION.  11 

river,  she  was  saluted  by  the  whistles  of  all  the  steamers 
near  by,  and  every  craft  in  the  harbor  dipped  her  colors. 

The  night  on  the  Sound  was  a  perfect  one,  Avith  a  clear  sky 
and  a  light  northwest  breeze,  and  the  President  appeared  to 
take  the  utmost  enjoyment  in  the  trip.  A  portion  of  the  time 
Avas  spent  in  the  wheel-house,  where  the  genial  captain,  Bay- 
lis  Davis,  the  commander  of  the  "Old  Colony,"  entertained 
him  with  pointing  out  the  objects  of  interest,  or  the  relation 
of  a  few  of  the  many  incidents  which  have  occurred  to  him 
in  his  long  service  with  the  Company. 

At  8  o'clock  dinner  was  served  in  the  forward  dinino- 
saloon,  which  had  been  arranged  for  the  occasion  with  bunt- 
ing in  profusion.  As  the  party  proceeded  to  the  saloqp  the 
passengers  lined  the  way  on  either  side,  and  stood  with  heads 
uncovered  during  the  passage.  The  table  was  shut  off  from 
the  rest  of  the  saloon  by  a  judicious  use  of  flags  and  bunting, 
and  was  ornamented  with  three  handsome  baskets  of  flowers, 
and  Avas  presided  over  by  President  Choate  of  the  O.C.R.R. 
Those  Avho  sat  at  the  table  were  President  Arthur,  Secretaries 
Lincoln  and  Chandler,  and  Assistant  Postmaster  General 
Hatton,  Hon.  S.  M.  Allen,  President,  and  T.  H.  Cumminffs, 
Secretary,  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  Surrogate  Rol- 
lins, Director  Bliss,  C.  E.  Miller,  Esq.,  C.  A.  Arthur,  Jr., 
W.  M.  Cooper,  Esq.,  and  Private  Secretary  Phillips.  The 
dinner  was  prepared  under  the  direction  of  SteAvard  George 
A.  Rice,  to  Avhom  much  credit  is  due  for  its  excellence. 

At  the  dinner  there  Avere  no  formalities,  and  subsequent  to 
it  the  conversation  became  general.  After  the  dinner  a  con- 
cert AA^as  given  in  the  main  saloon  by  Gilmore's  band. 

The  steamer  reached  Fall  River  at  5.10  a.m.  Wednesday, 
after  a  smooth  passage  on  the  Sound. 

After  the  boat  had  been  docked,  the  guard  of  Cadets,  under 
Lieutenant  Ticknor,  avIio,  with  General  Berry  and  Colonels 


12  THE   WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

Fiske  and  Martin  of  the  Governor's  staff,  had  come  down  the 
night  before,  took  breakfast  on  board. 

Just  before  8  o'clock  General  Berry  and  the  accompanying 
officers  Avere  presented  to  the  President,  whom  they  took  in 
charge  in  the  name  of  the  State,  and  soon  after  the  party  sat 
down  to  breakfast. 

At  exactly  8.34  a.m.  the  train  started  for  Boston,  Su- 
perintendent Kendrick,  of  the  Old  Colony  Railroad,  taking 
a  seat  on  the  engine. 

The  train  consisted  of  the  engine  "  Gen.  Warren,"  Engi- 
neer S.  P.  Willis;  the  sleeping  car  "Meriden,"  with  the 
guard  of  Cadets,  a  baggage  car,  No.  21,  and  the  parlor  car 
"Border  City,"  for  the  President  and  his  party,  placed  in 
the  rear  to  afford  a  view  of  the  road.  In  the  parlor  car 
Conductor  C.  E.  Russell  looked  after  the  interests  of  his 
guests,  and  the  entire  train  was  in  charge  of  Conductor  C. 
P.  Haskins.  The  Cadets  were  detailed  at  the  gangway  and 
along  the  passage  to  the  train,  and  saluted  as  the  President, 
leaning  on  Gen.  Berry's  arm,  passed  and  entered  the  car, 
followed  by  the  other  gentlemen  of  the  party.  At  nearly 
all  of  the  stations  of  the  road  there  were  feAV  spectators  to 
note  its  passage,  but  at  Taunton  there  was  quite  a  demon- 
stration, necessarily  brief,  however,  for  the  train  flashed  by 
like  a  meteor.  Handkerchiefs  were  fluttered  from  the 
windows  of  trains  on  side  tracks,  and  laborers,  farm  hands 
and  mechanics  paused  at  their  work  to  throw  a  passing 
glance  at  the  speeding  cars.  At  North  Easton  the  only  stop 
of  the  trip  was  made  to  receive  telegraphic  orders.  At  9.44 
the  train  arrived  at  the  South  Boston  station. 

The  Presidential  party  were  received  by  Gov.  Long  and 
Staff,  Lieut.  Gov.  Weston  and  Mayor  Green,  and  after  an 
informal  reception  were  escorted  to  their  carriages,  and  under 
the  escort  of  the  Cadets  and  Lancers  proceeded  to  the  Com- 


STATE  AND  BOSTON  RECEPTION.  13 

mon,  where  the  entire  militia  of  the  State  were  in  process 
of  forming  for  the  grand  review. 

Gen.  Wales,  in  his  capacity  as  Police  Commissioner,  had 
made  ample  police  arrangements,  and  never  before  Avere 
they  so  effectually  carried  out.  The  Common  for  a  consider- 
able distance  to  the  east  and  north  of  the  parade  ground  was 
roped  off,  and  the  line  was  guarded  by  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  officers,  and  only  those  having  business  were 
permitted  to  enter  the  enclosure.  The  officers  were  at  their 
posts  at  half-past  eight  precisely,  and  their  duty  for  the  first 
hour  Avas  comparatively  easy,  as  but  a  feAV  hundred  people 
had  assembled ;  but  as  the  militia  began  to  march  upon  the 
Common  the  hundreds  increased  to  thousands,  and  when  the 
President  arrived  there  Avere  probably  fifty  thousand  scat- 
tered in  every  part  of  the  Common  to  which  they  could  gain 
access. 

As  the  horses  of  the  President's  carriage  passed  over  the 
curbing  of  the  Boylston-street  entrance  the  commanding 
officer  of  the  battery  gave  the  order  "Fire,"  and  three  guns 
alternately  belched  forth  until  the  Presidential  salute  had 
been  giAren.  As  he  passed  the  right  of  the  line  of  the 
Second  Brigade,  the  band  gave  the  "President's  March," 
which  AA^as  repeated  by  the  bands  of  the  several  regiments 
all  along  the  line  until  the  Second  Corps  of  Cadets  was 
reached,  the  band  of  which  struck  up  "Hail  to  the  Chief." 
The  steadiness  Avith  which  the  troops  remained  in  position 
while  the  President  was  passing,  and  the  correct  manner  in 
which  the  officers  saluted,  could  not  be  excelled  by  the  same 
number  of  regular-army  troops,  and  Massachusetts  Avell  has 
reason  to  be  proud  of  such  a  fine  body  of  organized  and 
disciplined  men.  The  moment  the  President  and  his  party 
readied  the  left  of  the  Second  Brigade  the  bugler,  by 
direction  of  Gen.  Peach,  sounded  "Forward,"  and  al- 
most instantly  the  brigade  was  in  motion,  the  start  being 


14  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

made  at  10.35.  The  President  in  a  few  minutes  had  re- 
viewed the  entire  column,  and  was  driven  to  his  place  in  line 
between  the  two  brigades,  immediately  behind  the  Second 
Corps  of  Cadets.  As  the  President  was  awaiting  the  move- 
ment of  the  advance  column,  which  was  somewhat  delayed  on 
Columbus  avenue,  the  crowd  gave  him  quite  an  enthusiastic 
reception,  which  he  acknowledged  by  touching  his  hat.  He 
also  received  quite  an  ovation  as  he  went  out  of  the  Boylston- 
street  entrance,  and  in  Park  square  there  were  rounds  of 
cheers  and  waving  of  hats  and  handkerchiefs. 

The  procession  was  headed  by  a  platoon  of  mounted  police, 
and  then  followed  the  entire  militia  of  the  State  in  the  follow- 
ing order :  — 

SECOND  BRIGADE. 

Brigadier  General,  Benjamin  F.  Peach.  Jr. 

Staff—  Lieutenant  Colonel  Charles  C.  Fry,  Assistant  Adjutant  Gen- 
eral; Lieutenant  Colonel  Thomas  Kittredge,  Medical  Director;  Major 
Joseph  A.  Ingalls,  Assistant  Inspector  General;  Captain  Charles  W. 
Knapp,  Brigade  Quartermaster ;  Captain  Ezra  J.  Trull,  Captain  A.  N. 
Sampson.  Aides-de-Camp ;  Captain  Edward  E.  Currier,  Engineer ;  Cap- 
tain Elijah  George,  Judge  Advocate;  Captain  Aaron  A.  Hull,  Provost 
Marshal. 

NINTH  REGIMENT  OF  INFANTRY,  344  MEN. 

Boston  City  Band,  26  pieces,  T.  F.  Hersey,  leader. 

Colonel,  William  M.  Strachan. 

Staff— Lieutenant  Colonel,  Lawrence  J.  Logan;  Major,  Patrick  J. 
Grady ;  Major.  Frederick  B.  Bogan ;  First  Lieutenant  David  McGuire, 
Adjutant ;  First  Lieutenant  Simon  S.  Rankin,  Quartermaster ;  First  Lieu- 
tenant Frank  P.  Scully,  Assistant  Surgeon. 

Company  A,  Boston  — Captain,  Patrick  C.  Reardon;  First  Lieutenant, 
D.  J.  Keefe;  Second  Lieutenant,  John  M.  Doherty  — 43  men. 

Company  E,  Boston  — Captain,  Lawrence  J.  Ford;  First  Lieutenant. 
Frederick  F.  Doherty  —  40  men. 

Company  B,  South  Boston  — First  Lieutenant.  James  W.  Mahoney; 
Second  Lieutenant.  Edmund  W.  Hagerty  —  37  men. 

Company  C,  Boston  — Captain.  James  J.  Barry;  Second  Lieutenant. 
James  II.  Xugent  —  40  men. 

Company  F.  Lawrence  — Captain,  Daniel  F.  Dolan;  First  Lieutenant. 
William  II.  Donovan;  Second  Lieutenant,  Eugene  A.  McCarthy  —  35 
men. 


STATE  AND   BOSTON   RECEPTION.  15 

Company  D,  Charlestown —  Captain,  Matthew  J.  Callahan;  First 
Lieutenant,  E.  P.  Sullivan;  Second  Lieutenant,  Edward  O'Brien  —  58 
men. 

Company  G,  Charlestown  —  Second  Lieutenant,  Michael  J.  Mitchell 
—  35  men. 

Company  II.  East  Boston  —  Captain,  Charles  J.  F.  Madigan;  First 
Lieutenant,  John  J.  Foley — 34  men. 

FIFTH  REGIMENT  OF  INFANTRY,  331  MEN. 

Fifth  Regiment  (South  Abington)  Band,  Wm.  Bowles,  leader,  25 
pieces. 

Colonel,  William  A.  Bancroft. 

Staff — Lieutenant  Colonel,  Alonzo  L.  Richardson;  Major,  G.  Frank 
Frost ;  Major,  John  L.  Curtiss ;  First  Lieutenant  Richard  W.  Sutton, 
Adjutant ;  First  Lieutenant  Henry  N.  Wheeler,  Paymaster ;  Rev.  Samuel 
J.  Barrows,  Chaplain. 

Company  D,  Boston — Captain,  Henry  A.  Snow;  First  Lieutenant, 
George  T.  Sears;  Second  Lieutenant,  Samuel  Porter  —  40  men. 

Company  B,  Cambridge  —  Captain,  Thomas  C.  Henderson ;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, Charles  H.  Cutler;  Second  Lieutenant,  William  H.Wilson  —  31 
men. 

Company  C,  Newton  —  Captain,  Isaac  H.  Houghton ;  First  Lieutenant, 
W.  E.  Glover;  Second  Lieutenant,  George  II.  Benyon  —  37  men. 

Company  G,  Woburn  —  Captain,  Charles  W.  Converse;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, Charles  E.  Halliday;  Second  Lieutenant,  Joseph  M.  Hall  —  43 
men. 

Company  II,  Charlestown — Captain.  J.  Henry  Brown;  First  Lieuten- 
ant. Everett  P.  Miers  —  34  men. 

Company  A,  Boston  —  Captain,  Leon  H.  Bateman ;  First  Lieutenant, 
L.  Edgar  Timson;  Second  Lieutenant,  George  M.  Hodgdon—  33  men. 

Company  F.  Waltham  —  Captain,  John  E.  Glidden;  First  Lieutenant, 
Gideon  F.  Haynes;  Second  Lieutenant.  William  II.  Holland  —  26  men. 

Company  E,  Medford  —  First  Lieutenant,  Harry  J.  Newhall  —  30  men. 


EIGHTH  REGIMENT  OF  INFANTRY,  509  MEN. 

Haverhill  Cornet  Band.  2G  pieces,  T.  D.  Perkins,  leader. 

Colonel,  Charles  L.  Avers. 

Staff — Lieutenant  Colonel,  Francis  A.  Osgood;  Major,  William  N". 
Tyler;  Major,  Lawrence  N.  Duchesney;  Major,  Clarence  M.  Sprague; 
First  Lieutenant  Oscar  C.  Lougee,  Adjutant ;  First  Lieutenant  Fitz  W. 
Perkins.  Quartermaster;  Major  George  W.  Snow,  Surgeon;  First  Lieu- 
tenant F.  A.  Durgin,  Assistant  Surgeon;  First  Lieutenant  John  G.  War- 
ner, Paymaster;  Rev.  Gilbert  C.  Osgood,  Chaplain. 

Company  E.  Beverly — Captain.  Charles  L.  Dodge;  First  Lieutenant, 
Winthrop  E.  Perry ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Lucius  II.  Perry  —  43  men. 


16  THE  WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

Company  K,  Salem  —  Captain,  James  Leonard;  First  Lieutenant. 
Almon  Allard;  Second  Lieutenant,  Charles  H.  Marsden  — 40  men. 

Company  G,  Gloucester  — Captain,  Fitz  E.  Oakes,  Jr. ;  First  Lieuten- 
ant Edward  G.  Winchester;  Second  Lieutenant,  Howard  E.  Gaffney  — 
34  men. 

Company  L,  Salem  — Captain,  George  A.  Copeland;  First  Lieutenant, 
S.  M.  Eastman;  Second  Lieutenant.  N.  F.  Barker  — 31  men. 

Company  F.  Haverhill  —  Captain,  George  H.  Hanscom :  First  Lieu- 
tenant, George  W.  Sargent;  Second  Lieutenant,  Benjamin  H.  Jellison  — 
44  men. 

Company  B,  Xewburyport  —  Captain,  Charles  N.  Safford;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, J.  Hermann  Carver;  Second  Lieutenant,  William  D.  Sargent  — 
43  men. 

Company  A,  Newburyport  —  Captain,  J.  Albert  Mills ;  First  Lieuten- 
ant. Charles  W.  Adams;  Second  Lieutenant,  Elmer  E.  Towne  — 39  men. 

Company  M,  Lawrrence  —  Captain,  John  I.  Gibson;  First  Lieutenant, 
AVilliam  L.  Stedman ;  Second  Lieutenant.  Edward  A.  Rogers  —  40  men. 

Company  I,  Lynn— Captain.  Charles  E.  Chase;  First  Lieutenant, 
James  F.  Pool ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Eben  T.  Brackett  —  42  men. 

Company  H,  Chelsea  — Captain,  Charles  J.  Foye;  First  Lieutenant, 
Seldon  A.  Lennan  ^  Second  Lieutenant.  Amos  N".  Kincaid  —  34  men. 

Company  D,  Lynn  — Captain,  Harry  E.  Palmer;  First  Lieutenant, 
Horace  E.  Monroe;  Second  Lieutenant,  T.  Dexter  Johnson  — 42  men. 

Company  C.  Marblehead  — Captain.  Stuart  F.  McClearn;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, Edward  D.  Tutt;  Second  Lieutenant,  John  C.  Caswell,  Jr. — 40 
men. 

FIRST  BATTALION,  LIGHT  ARTILLERY,  8  PIECES,  169  MEN. 

Major,  George  S.  Merrill. 

Staff— First  Lieutenant  James  Ingalls,  Adjutant;  First  Lieutenant 
James  McConnell,  Quartermaster;  Major  L.  S.  Dow,  Surgeon;  First 
Lieutenant  Albert  D.  Swan,  Paymaster. 

Battery  A,  Boston  — Captain,  Joseph  W.  Smith;  First  Lieutenant, 
George  W.  Brooks ;  First  Lieutenant,  AVilliam  Appleton ;  Second  Lieu- 
tenant, George  B.  Cartwright,  Jr.  —  75  men. 

Battery  C,  Melrose  — Captain,  Charles  O.  Boyd;  First  Lieutenant, 
James  Marshall ;  First  Lieutenant,  Thomas  B.  Stantial ;  Second  Lieuten- 
ant, Amos  W.  Lynde  —  81  men. 

FIRST  BATTALION  OF  CAVALRY,  294  MEN. 

Higgins'  Mounted  Band.  26  pieces,  C.  Higgins,  leader. 

Major.  Charles  A.  Young. 

Staff  — First  Lieutenant  James  P.  Frost,  Adjutant;  First  Lieutenant 
Sullivan  B^  Xewton,  Quartermaster;  Major  William  H.  Emery,  Surgeon; 
First  Lieutenant  H  L.  Burrell,  Assistant  Surgeon ;  First  Lieutenant 
Michael  W.  Fitzsimmons,  Paymaster ;  Rev.  Edward  A.  Horton,  Chap- 
lain. 


STATE   AND   BOSTON    RECEPTION.  17 

Company  A,  Boston  —  Captain,  Benjamin  W.  Dean ;.  First  Lieutenant, 
Horace  G.  Kemp ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Henry  D.  Andrews  —  101  men. 

Company  D,  Boston  — Captain,  Francis  H.  Goss;  First  Lieutenant, 
John  Thomas ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Thomas  Talbot  —  70  men. 

FIRST  CORPS  OF  CADETS,  139  MEN. 

Boston  Cadet  Band,  30  pieces.  J.  Thomas  Baldwin,  leader. 

Lieutenant  Colonel,  Thomas  F.  Edmands. 

Staff — Major,  Wm.  F.  Lawrence;  First  Lieutenant  Henry  B.  Rice, 
Adjutant;  First  Lieutenant  Charles  C.  Melcher,  Quartermaster;  Major 
Wm.  L.  Richardson,  Surgeon;  First  Lieutenant  Charles  M.  Green,  As- 
sistant Surgeon;  Captain  Charles  E.  Stevens,  Paymaster. 

Company  C,  Boston  —  Captain,  George  R.  Rogers;  First  Lieutenant, 
William  A.  Hayes  —  24  men. 

Company  A,  Boston  —  Captain,  Francis  H.  Appleton;  First  Lieuten- 
ant, William  M.  Rice  —  24  men. 

Company  B,  Boston  —  Captain,  William  H.  Alline;  First  Lieutenant, 
J.  Edward  R.  Hill— 32  men. 

Company  D,  Boston  —  Captain,  Albert  C.  Pond;  First  Lieutenant, 
Thomas  B.  Ticknor  —  22  men. 


SECOND  CORPS  OF  CADETS,  116  MEN. 

Salem  Cadet  Band,  Jean  Missud,  leader,  25  pieces. 

Lieutenant-Colonel,  Edward  Hobbs. 

Staff— Major,  Frank  Dalton ;  First  Lieutenant  Andrew  Fitz,  Adjutant ; 
First  Lieutenant  Edward  A.  Simonds,  Quartermaster ;  Major  David  Cog- 
gin,  Surgeon;  First  Lieutenant  Samuel  B.  Clarke,  Assistant  Surgeon; 
Captain  Thomas  H.  Johnson,  Paymaster ;  Rev  Ellery  C.  Butler,  Chap- 
lain. 

Company  B,  Salem  —  Captain,  John  W.  Hart ;  First  Lieutenant,  Sam- 
uel A.  Johnson;  Second  Lieutenant,  George  A.  Hart  —  41  men. 

Company  A,  Salem  —  Captain,  Walter  C.  Harris;  First  Lieutenant, 
Edward  W.  Abbott;  Second  Lieutenant,  Edward  A.  Maloon  —  40  men. 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  PARTY. 

First  Carriage  —  The  President.  Governor  Long,  General  Berry. 

Second  Carriage  —  Secretary  Lincoln,  Mayor  Green,  the  Collector  of 
the  Port. 

Third  Carriage  —  Secretary  Chandler,  Lieutenant-Governor  Weston, 
Colonel  Fiske,  General  Dale. 

Fourth  Carriage  —  Assistant  Postmaster-General  Hatton,  Secretary  to 
the  President  Phillips,  Colonel  Draper.  Hon.  George  B.  Loring. 

Fifth  Carriage  — Cornelius  N.  Bliss,  Charles  E.  Miller  and  D.  G.  Rol- 
lins, of  New  York,  Colonel  Bouve. 


18  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Sixth  Carriage  —  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen,  C.  A.  Arthur.  Jr..  General 
N.  P.  Banks,  General  W.  W.  Blackmar. 

Seventh  Carriage  — Colonel  E.  H.  Haskell,  Colonel  Morris  Schaff,  Hon. 
Daniel  A.  Gleason,  Hon.  Henry  B.  Peirce. 

Eighth  Carriage  — Hon.  Charles  R.  Ladd,  Hon.  George  S.  Hey  wood. 
Colonel  Lockwood,  Colonel  Jordan. 

Ninth  Carriage— Hon.  Rodney  Wallace,  Hon.  E.  C.  Fitz,  Hon.  Rufus 
D.  Woods,  Colonel  Harwood. 

Tenth  Carriage  —  Hon.  M.  J.  Flatley,  Hon.  Matthew  H.  Cushing.  Hon. 
Joseph  Davis,  Hon.  Nathaniel  Wales. 


FIRST  BRIGADE. 

Brigadier-General,  Nathaniel  Wales. 

Staff — Lieutenant-Colonel  William  M.  Olin.  Assistant  Adjutant-Gen- 
eral; Lieutenant-Colonel  George  E.  Pinkham,  Medical  Director;  Major 
John  W.  Sanger,  Assistant  Inspector-General ;  Captain  John  B.  Osborn, 
Brigade  Quartermaster;  Captain  Benjamin  F.  Field,  Jr.,  Captain  Joseph 
H.  Lathrop,  Aides-de-Camp ;  Captain  Frank  N.  Brown.  Engineer;  Cap- 
tain Bowdoin  S.  Parker,  Judge  Advocate ;  Captain  F.  W.  Reynolds.  Pro- 
vost Marshal. 

SECOND  REGIMENT  OF  INFANTRY,  359  MEN. 

Fitchburg  Band,  Warren  Russell,  leader,  26  pieces. 

Colonel,  Benjamin  F.  Bridges,  Jr. 

Staff— Lieutenant-Colonel,  Embury  P.  Clark;  Major,  Frederick  W. 
Merriam ;  Major,  George  F.  Sessions ;  First  Lieutenant  James  B.  Bridges, 
Adjutant;  First  Lieutenant  Charles  D.  Colson,  Quartermaster;  Major 
Daniel  Clark,  Surgeon;  First  Lieutenant  Orland  J.  Brown,  Assistant 
Surgeon ;  First  Lieutenant  Charles  L.  Hayden,  Paymaster ;  Rev  Henry 
W.  Eldridge,  Chaplain. 

Company  H,  South  Deerfield  —  Captain,  Pharcellas  D.  Bridges;  First 
Lieutenant,  Albion  C.  Boynton;  Second  Lieutenant,  Edson  M  Roche  — 
44  men. 

Company  E,  Shelburne  Falls  —  Captain.  Herbert  W.  Swan;  First 
Lieutenant,  Willis  M.  Johnson ;  Second  Lieutenant,  George  D.  Eldridge 
—  40  men. 

Company  F,  North  Adams  —  Captain,  Charles  L.  Frink ;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, Perry  M.  Farley ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Edwin  Barnard  —  40  men. 

Company  D,  Holyoke  —  Captain,  Charles  W.  Brown ;  First  Lieutenant, 
George  E.  Russell;  Second  Lieutenant,  George  Maxwell  —  33  men. 

Company  A,  Worcester  —  Captain,  Edwin  R.  Shumway ;  Second  Lieu- 
tenant. Frank  W.  Barrett  —  44  men. 

Company  C,  Worcester  —  Captain.  Winslow  S.  Lincoln;  First  Lieu- 
tenant. Edward  A.  Harris;  Second  Lieutenant.  Phineas  L.  Rider  —  43 
men. 


STATE  AND   BOSTON    RECEPTION.  19 

Company  G,  Springfield  —  Captain,  Hubert  M.  Coney ;  First  Lieuten- 
ant, J.  J.  Leonard ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Henry  Knapp  —  42  men. 

Company  B,  Springfield  — Captain,  Frederick  G.  Southmayd;  First 
Lieutenant,  Henry  McDonald;  Second  Lieutenant,  Thomas  F.  Cordis  — 
41  men. 

SIXTH  REGIMENT  OF  INFANTRY,  526  MEN. 

American  Band  of  Lowell,  R.  MeDaniell,  leader,  26  pieces. 

Colonel,  Smith  M.  Decker. 

Staff — Lieutenant-Colonel,  Henry  G.  Greene;  Major,  Henry  Parsons; 
Major,  Charles  F.  Woodward;  Major,  Josiah  W.  Bride;  First  Lieutenant 
Charles  II.  Littlefield,  Adjutant;  First  Lieutenant  Ambrose  M.  Page, 
Quartermaster;  Major  Nathan  S.  Chamberlain,  Surgeon;  First  Lieuten- 
ant Lewis  G.  Holt,  Paymaster;  Rev.  Alphonso  E.  White,  Chaplain. 

Company  L,  Boston — Captain,  Charles  F.  A.  Francis;  First  Lieuten- 
ant. W.  J.  B.  Oxley;  Second  Lieutenant,  G.  W.  Brady  —  50  men. 

Company  F,  Marlborough  — Captain,  Thomas  E.  Jackson;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, T.  Joseph  Beaudry;  Second  Lieutenant,  George  J.  Andrews  — 
47  men. 

Company  I,  Concord  —  Captain,  Frank  W.  Holden;  First  Lientenant, 
Sherman  Hoar;  Second  Lieutenant,  Thomas  T.  Buttrick  —  43  men. 

Company  M,  Milford  —  Captain,  Henry  J.  Bailey;  First  Lieutenant, 
George  P.  Cooke;  Second  Lieutenant,  Horace  E.  Whitney  —  37  men 

Company  G,  Lowell  —  Captain,  Charles  H.  Richardson;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, Asa  W.  Mead;  Second  Lieutenant,  Frank  E.  Cleveland  —  33  men. 

Company  C,  Lowell  —  Captain,  George  O.  E.  French;  First  Lieuten- 
ant, Charles  Conners;  Second  Lieutenant,  William  M.  Foster  —  41  men. 

Company  A,  Wakefield  —  First  Lieutenant,  Charles  A.  Cheney ;  Second 
Lieutenant,  Herbert  W.  Walton  —  44  men. 

Company  H,  Stoneham  —  Captain,  George  II.  Chaffin ;  First  Lieuten- 
ant, John  F.  Berry;  Second  Lieutenant,  S.  A.  Lawrence  —  47  men. 

Company  D,  Fitchburg  —  Captain.  Thomas  II.  Shea;  First  Lieutenant, 
James  P.  Kane ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Frank  S.  Lynch  —  39  men. 

Company  E,  Ashburnham  —  Captain,  Walter  II.  Laws ;  First  Lieu- 
tenant-, Charles  H.  Pratt;  Second  Lieutenant,  Alvah  S.  Fullford  —  38 
men. 

Company  K,  Leominster  —  Captain,  Edgar  A.  Buffington;  Second 
Lieutenant,  Clement  II.  Turner  —  3G  men. 

Company  B,  Fitchburg  —  Captain,  George  Burford;  First  Lieutenant, 
George  A.  Bailey;  Second  Lieutenant,  Frederick  E.  Bruce  —  34  men. 

FIRST  REGIMENT  OF  INFANTRY,  441  MEN. 

Reeves'  American  Band  of  Providence,  2G  pieces,  D.  W.  Reeves, 
leader. 

Colonel,  Austin  C.  Wellington. 

Staff — Lieutenant -Colonel,   Daniel  A.   Butler;     Major,   Alfred  B. 


20  THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Hodges;  Major,  Samuel  R.  Field;  Acting-Major,  Captain  Henry  L.  Park- 
inson, Jr. ;  First  Lieutenant  Frederick  G.  King,  Adjutant ;  First  Lieuten- 
ant Wm.  \\ .  Kellett,  Quartermaster;  First  Lieutenant  James  F.  Jackson, 
Paymaster. 

Company  M,  Fall  River  —  Captain.  Sierra  L.  Braley ;  First  Lieutenant, 
Valorous  O.  Say  ward;  Second  Lieutenant,  C.  B.  Woodman  —  46  men. 

Company  F,  Taunton  —  Captain,  Alden  H.  Blake;  First  Lieutenant, 
Edward  E.  Hill;  Second  Lieutenant,  Alanson  Pratt  — 30  men. 

Company  G,  Taunton  —  Captain,  Walter  Carter;  First  Lieutenant, 
Thomas  J.  Brady;  Second  Lieutenant,  Thomas  R.  Peabody  —  41  men. 

Company  E.  New  Bedford  — Captain.  John  K.  McAfee;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, Zacheus  C.  Dunham;  Second  Lieutenant,  William  R.  Spooner  — 
4G  men 

Company  I,  Brockton  —  Captain.  James  X.  Keith;  First  Lieutenant, 
Frederick  Wood;  Second  Lieutenant.  Nathan  E.  Leach  —  29  men. 

Company  D.  Roxbury  Captain  Horace  T.  Rockwell ;  First  Lieuten- 
ant, Harry  C.  Gardner ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Joseph  H.  Frothingham  — 
43  men. 

Company  H,  Plymouth  —  Captain,  John  W.  Hunting ;  First  Lieuten- 
ant, Charles  D.  Burgess;  Second  Lieutenant,  E.  B.  Pierce  —  22  men. 

Company  A,  West  Roxbury  —  Captain,  John  B.  McKay ;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, D.  T.  Curtin;  Second  Lieutenant,  Thomas  Holden  —  35  men. 

Company  L,  East  Boston  — First  Lieutenant,  George  E.  Harringtqn; 
Second  Lieutenant,  Seymour  Harding  —  41  men. 

Company  C,  Boston  —  Captain,  Charles  L.  Hovey ;  First  Lieutenant, 
J.  Marion  Moulton ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Henry  C.  Durkee  —  40  men. 

Company  K,  Boston  —  Captain,  George  E.  Lovett;  First  Lieutenant, 
Samuel  Hobbs;  Second  Lieutenant,  Charles  A.  Wyman  —  26  men. 

Company  B,  Cambridge  —  Captain,  Albert  F.  Fessenden ;  First  Lieu- 
tenant, William  L.  Fox ;  Second  Lieutenant.  Henry  G.  Wrells  —  34  men. 

LIGHT  ARTILLERY,  4  PIECES,  50  MEN. 

Worcester  Cadet  Band,  M.  Ingraham,  leader,  26  pieces. 

Battery  B.  Worcester  — Captain,  Henry  C.  Wadsworth;  First  Lieu- 
tenant. George  L.  Allen;  First  Lieutenant,  Mason  A.  Boyden;  Second 
Lieutenant,  Fred  W.  Wellington;  First  Lieutenant  Henry  S.  Knight, 
Assistant  Surgeon. 

COMPANY  F,  CAVALRY,  75  MEN. 

Dunstable  Band,  H.  Spaulding,  leader,  20  pieces. 

Captain,  Sherman  Fletcher;  First  Lieutenant,  Arthur  M.  Clement; 
Second  Lieutenant,  William  L.  Kittredge ;  First  Lieutenant  Joseph  B. 
Heald,  Assistant  Surgeon. 

The  procession  moved  steadily  over  the  folloAving  route  : 
Columbus  avenue,  West   Newton,   Washington,    Franklin, 


STATE  AND  BOSTON  RECEPTION.  21 

Congress,  Milk,  India,  Commercial,  South  Market,  Mer- 
chants row,  State,  Washington,  School,  Beacon,  Dartmouth, 
and  Boylston  streets  to  the  Common.  The  President  and 
escort  passed  through  Berkeley  street  from  Beacon  to  the 
Brunswick.  A  strong  detail  of  police  was  necessary  to  keep 
clear  the  line  of  march  at  many  points. 

Shortly  after  11  a.m.  the  long  line  filed  into  Columbus 
avenue  and  began  its  march.  First  came  two  or  three 
mounted  policemen  skirmishing  along  far  ahead  of  the  col- 
umn, removing  teams  and  warning  back  too  venturesome  pe- 
destrians. Then  followed  Superintendent  of  Police  Adams 
with  an  escort,  and  behind  him  the  regular  detail,  which 
stretched  from  curb  to  curb.  With  but  a  little  space  inter- 
vening was  the  head  of  the  column,  Gen.  Peach  and  his  staff, 
of  the  Second  Brigade,  then  the  famous  Ninth  Regiment, 
which,  as  did  all  the  other  organizations,  marched  with  com- 
pany front.  Its  ranks  were  full,  the  bearing  of  the  men  was 
soldierly.  The  Fifth  Regiment  came  next,  and  then  followed 
the  Eighth,  both  of  them  showing  that  they  are  well  up  in 
drill,  as  well  as  careful  of  their  accoutrements.  Then  came 
the  First  Battalion  of  Light  Artillery,  its  bright  scarlet  trap- 
pings being  the  first  masses  of  color  to  break  the  sober  blue. 
Following  this  were  the  Lancers  and  the  Roxbury  Horse 
Guards,  and  then  at  an  interval  the  two  corps  of  Cadets,  the 
first  with  their  Avhite  coats,  the  second  with  those  articles  of 
costume  of  crimson  hue,  and  then,  at  length,  the  President. 
He  was  seated  with  Gov.  Long  in  a  landeau  drawn  by  four 
white  horses.  Around  this  equipage  were  mounted  officers  of 
the  Governor's  and  the  Brigade  staffs.  In  the  other  carriages 
were  other  guests  of  the  State,  and  State  officers  ;  their  escort 
were  details  of  the  Lancers  and  of  the  Horse  Guards. 

After  another  little  break  came  the  staff  of  the  First  Bri- 
gade, surrounding  and  supporting  General  Wales,  its  com- 
mander.    Then  in  quick  succession  marched  the  Second,  the 


22  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Sixth  and  the  First  Kegiments  of  Infantry,  Battery  B  of  Light 
Artillery  and  Company  F  of  Cavalry,  a  squad  of  police  fol- 
lowing the  last  and  closing  the  line.  The  progress  was  rapid  ; 
it  was  watched  by  a  large  and  decorous  crowd,  whose  mem- 
bers greeted  the  President  by  removal  of  head-covering  or 
wave  of  handkerchief,  to  which  he  responded  with  raised  hat. 
The  scene  in  and  around  State  street  during  the  procession 
may  be  regarded  as  in  a  sense  the  culmination  of  the  out- 
door demonstration.  For  several  hours  of  the  forenoon  the 
street  from  Merchants  row  to  the  Old  State  House  was 
occupied  by  a  constantly  increasing  throng,  the  overlooking 
windows  and  even  the  house-tops  being  occupied.  The  win- 
dows of  the  Old  State  House,  which  were  chiefly  restricted 
to  persons  connected  with  the  City  Government,  afforded  a 
rare  opportunity  to  note  the  massive  effect  of  the  militia 
bodies  as  the  long  columns  moved  up,  the  narrow  space  at  the 
north  side  of  that  building  necessitating  a  wheeling  move- 
ment opposite  Congress  street,  which  added  much  to  the 
animation  and  picturesque  effect.  As  the  head  of  the  organ- 
izations wheeled  into  State  street  and  marched  up  with  the 
Superintendent  and  a  double  force  of  police,  and  then  the 
mounted  staff  of  the  Second  Brigade,  the  sight  was  a  very 
striking  one.  The  long  blue  lines  of  the  Ninth,  Fifth  and 
Eighth  Kegiments  followed  in  quick  succession ;  then'  the 
Light  Artillery  and  the  briliantly  uniformed  Lancers  gave  va- 
riety to  the  picture.  After  the  passage  of  the  Cadets,  whose 
rhythmical  and  elastic  step  was  particularly  admired,  the 
cheering  announced  the  advent  of  the  carriage  containing 
President  Arthur.  As  he  sat  in  the  barouche  with  Gov. 
Long  and  Gen.  Berry  he  was  the  centre  of  observation. 
Audible  comments  were  heard  on  every  side  as  to  the  fine 
appearance  of  the  guest  of  the  day,  and  the  plaudits  that 
greeted  him  gave  him  occasion  constantly  to  bow  his  recog- 
nition.    The  Governor  and  the  Mayor  were  also  cordially 


STATE  AND  BOSTON  RECEPTION.  23 

recognized,  but  though  the  long  and  attractive  ranks  of  the 
First  Brigade  remained  to  be  seen,  there  was  a  general  move- 
ment of  the  throng  as  soon  as  the  central  figure  had  passed, 
and  all  rushed  forward  to  obtain  a  near  view  of  the  Chief 
Magistrate. 

For  fully  an  hour  prior  to  the  procession  reaching  the 
State  House  the  approaches  to  it  were  crowded  with  a  mass 
of  people.  Every  Avindow  and  other  point  of  vantage  in  the 
building  itself  had  its  occupant.  The  grounds  surrounding 
it  contained  a  goodly  number  of  favored  sight-seers,  Avhile 
the  pillars  of  the  gates,  the  trees,  railings  and  every  elevated 
spot  in  the  vicinity  were  eagerly  sought  by  adventurous  boys. 
The  street  in  front  of  the  State  House  was  so  crowded  with 
people  that,  were  it  not  for  the  industrious  energy  of  the 
police  and  the  force  of  the  procession  itself,  a  passage  would 
have  been  difficult.  At  12.30  a  body  of  police  officers  clear- 
ing the  road  indicated  the  coming  of  the  procession.  Soon 
the  mounted  police  appeared,  followed  by  Brigadier  General 
B.  F.  Peach  and  staff;  the  Boston  City  Band,  playing  the 
inspiring  and  familiar  "Marching  through  Georgia," followed 
and  stimulated  the  elastic  tread  of  the  Ninth  Regiment.  As 
the  different  regiments  passed,  the  music  of  brass  bands  or 
tap  of  drum  kept  up  the  enthusiasm  of  the  processionists 
and  the  crowded  masses  on  the  sidewalks.  As  the  Lancers 
went  by  the  sun  shone  out  brilliantly,  and  the  dancing  plumes 
and  gay  pennants  looked  attractive.  When  the  barouche 
containing  the  President,  Gov.  Long  and  Adjutant  General 
Berry  reached  the  State  House,  a  halt  was  ordered.  An 
enthusiastic  gentleman  called  for  three  cheers  for  President 
Arthur,  which  were  warmly  given,  the  President  acknow- 
ledging the  compliment  by  bowing  to  the  people.  After 
a  halt  of  ten  minutes  the  march  was  resumed,  and  as  the 
carriages  containing  the  other  visiting  dignitaries  went  by 
they  were  pretty  warmly  recognized,   the   occupants   bow- 


24  THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

ing  their  appreciation.      At  fifteen  minutes    past   one   the 
entire  procession  had  passed. 

The  right  of  the  First  Brigade  reached  Dartmouth  street 
soon  after  one  o'clock,  where  it  halted  to  allow  the  President 
to  reach  the  Brunswick,  where  the  troops  passed  in  review 
before  him.  When  the  two  corps  of  Cadets  arrived  at  Berke- 
ley street  they  broke  from  the  line  and  escorted  the  Presi- 
dent directly  to  the  hotel,  which  was  reached  at  precisely 
1.25.  The  Cadets  were  drawn  up  in  line  in  front  of  the  hotel, 
and  as  the  President  left  his  carriage  and  was  received  on  the 
steps  of  the  hotel  by  Mayor  Green,  the  two  organizations 
presented  arms.  The  formal  ceremonies  of  tendering  to  the 
President  the  hospitalities  of  the  city  did  not  occupy  more  than 
a  minute,  and  the  Presidential  party  then  repaired  to  the 
rooms  assigned  them.  In  the  mean  time  the  First  and  Second 
Corps  of  Cadets  inarched  to  the  extreme  left  of  the  column, 
while  the  right  of  the  line  made  preparations  for  the  review. 
A  few  minutes  later  some  of  the  members  of  Gov.  Long's 
staff  appeared  upon  the  reviewing  stand  and  gave  the  signal 
for  the  column  to  move,  and  almost  immediately  Gen.  Peach 
and  his  staff  wheeled  from  Dartmouth  into  Boylston  street, 
and  the  great  military  event  of  the  day  was  taking  place. 
Before  the  commanding  general  had  reached  Clarendon  street 
the  President  and  party,  Gov.  Long  and  other  State  officers, 
Mayor  Green  and  the  Reception  Committee  and  several 
invited  guests,  were  upon  the  reviewing  stand,  the  President 
occupying  a  central  position,  with  Gov.  Long  and  Mayor 
Green  upon  his  left.  The  brigade  contained  for  the  first  time 
during  the  day  all  the  organizations  which  comprise  it,  the 
three  regiments  of  infantry  leading,  followed  by  the  artillery 
and  the  cavalry  battalion,  consisting  of  the  Lancers  and  the 
Roxbury  Horse  Guards.  The  President  returned  the  salute 
of  Gen.  Peach  and  his  staff,  and  also  the  salutes  of  the  field 
and  staff  officers  of  each  organization,   and  remained  with 


STATE    AND   BOSTON  RECEPTION.  25 

uncovered  head  as  the  colors  were  dipped  in  honor  of  the 
Commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy.  The  First 
Brigade  took  the  prescribed  interval,  and  its  full  regiments 
made  a  fine  appearance.  The  troops  moved  by  company 
front,  and  were  thirty-five  minutes  in  passing  the  reviewing 
stand.  The  two  corps  of  Cadets  formed  the  left  of  the  line, 
and  it  is  no  discredit  to  the  other  commands  to  say  that  the 
alignment  of  the  First  Cadets  as  they  passed  the  President 
was  about  as  near  perfect  as  could  be,  and  aroused  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  crowd  which  had  assembled  to  get  a  view  of  the 
President  as  well  as  to  watch  the  military  pageant. 

After  a  lunch  the  guests  took  carriages.  The  Lancers 
and  Horse  Guards  acted  as  escort  to  the  party,  who  occu- 
pied carriages  as  follows:  No.  1,  President  Arthur,  Mayor 
Green  and  Alderman  Hall;  No.  2,  Secretary  Chandler, 
Secretary  Lincoln  and  Councilman  Pratt;  No.  3,  Chester  A. 
Arthur,  Jr.,  Assistant  Postmaster-Gen.  Ilatton  and  Alder- 
man Stebbins ;  No.  4,  Hon.  George  B.  Loring,  M.  W. 
Cooper  and  Godfrey  Morse;  No.  5,  Surrogate  Eollins, 
George  Bliss,  Mr.  Springhart  and  Councilman  Mathews ; 
No.  6,  Private  Secretary  Phillips  and  Mr.  C.  N.  Bliss.  In 
this  order  the  party  proceeded  to  Faneuil  Hall,  for  the 
public  reception. 

The  interior  of  Faneuil  Hall,  with  its  pictures  and  me- 
morials, which  make  the  place  always  impressive,  was  fit- 
tingly and  elaborately  decorated  by  Messrs.  Lamprell  & 
Marble.  Below  the  great  painting  of  Webster  replying  to 
Hayne,  and  just  above  the  niches  containing  the  busts  of 
Adams  and  Webster,  were  heavy  festoons  of  bunting,  and  the 
front  of  the  platform  was  covered  with  pink  and  decorated 
muslin,  spaced  off  by  depending  knots.  In  the  centre  of  the 
ceiling  was  a  medallion  representation  of  a  spread  eagle, 
holding  an  olive-branch  in  its  talons,  from  which  extended 
horizontally  four  staves  with  spears  holding  United  States 


26  THE   WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

flags.  Between  these,  and  running  in  long,  sweeping  curves 
from  the  same  central  figure  to  the  tops  of  the  columns,  were 
bunting  streamers,  eight  on  either  side,  falling  in  heavy  knots 
at  the  outer  ends.  Just  below  the  knots  on  the  upper  por- 
tion of  the  pillars  were  the  seals  of  the  New  England  States, 
and  still  further  down,  running  around  the  gallery  front,  was 
a  covering  of  pink  and  ornamented  muslin,  fastened  at  inter- 
vals with  shields  representing  each  of  the  States.  Below 
these  were  heavy  hanging  bands  of  red  and  white,  decorating 
the  lower  pillars  around  the  interior.  Above  the  carved 
eagle  on  the  rear  gallery  stood  six  United  States  flags  with 
spears  on  the  staves ;  and  the  clock  and  base  beneath  were 
embellished  with  sunburstry  and  stars  on  a  blue  ground. 
Under  the  clock  was  placed  the  seal  of  the  city  of  Boston  in 
white,  with  closely  clustering  festoons  of  white  depending. 
Sunbursts  surmounted  and  environed  the  portraits  of  Robert 
Treat  Paine  and  Caleb  Strong  on  the  south  and  north  sides  of 
the  galleries,  and  half-way  between  these  and  the  gallery 
ends  were  United  States  emblems,  while  at  the  gallery  cor- 
ners stood  half-furled  British,  French  and  German  standards, 
the  whole  effect  combining  minuteness  of  detail  with  artistic 
unity  of  design. 

At  2.25  p.m.  the  doors  were  opened  to  the  crowd  that  filled 
the  space  between  the  markets  in  Merchants  row  and  ex- 
tended on  either  side  of  that  area  for  some  distance.  As  is 
usually  the  case,  in  it  were  many  women,  and  also,  as  usual, 
they  were  more  eager  than  the  men  to  gain  admittance  to  the 
historic  interior.  In  less  than  ten  minutes  floor  and  galleries 
were  filled  much  more  closely  than  could  have  been  comfort- 
able, and  still  there  were  thousands  who  sought  in  vain  to 
pass  inward  through  the  portals.  In  spite  of  the  crowding, 
however,  the  best  of  good-nature  prevailed,  each  one,  whether 
successful  in  endeavor  or  unsuccessful,  signifying  by  conduct 
that  while  visits  of  Presidents  to  Boston  are  so  rare,  some 


STATE  AND  BOSTON  RECEPTION.  27 

discomfort  must  be  endured  by  those  who  desire  to  see  him 
when  he  does  come.  President  Arthur,  accompanied  by 
Mayor  Green,  the  Reception  Committee  of  the  City  Govern- 
ment, Secretary  Lincoln,  Secretary  Chandler,  Chester  A. 
Arthur,  Jr.,  and  several  others,  entered  the  hall  at  3.40  p.m. 
He  was  greeted  most  cordially,  and  then  cheered. 

When  the  applause  and  cheers  had  subsided,  Mayor  Green 
said  :  "  I  am  directed  by  the  President  to  say  that  he  would 
like  to  shake  the  hand  of  each  and  every  one  of  you,  but  the 
time  is  so  limited  that  he  wrill  be  able  to  spend  but  a  very  few 
minutes  here.  He  will  say  a  few  words,  and  after  that  will 
shake  hands  with  a  very  few.  I  have  the  pleasure  and  the 
honor  of  presenting  the  Honorable  Chester  A.  Arthur,  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States."  The  President  was  again  cheered  ; 
he  said  :  "  You  have  my  most  sincere  gratitude  for  your  cordial 
and  enthusiastic  reception.  I  know  well  that  everything  of  the 
demonstration  with  which  to-day  I  have  been  greeted  does  not 
proceed  from  the  promptings  of  personal  regard ;  they  only 
give  voice  to  the  loyalty  of  Boston  and  of  Massachusetts  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  [Applause.]  I  know  chat 
they  show  the  respect  that  the  citizens  of  this  grand  old  Com- 
monwealth and  of  this  magnificent  city  pay  to  the  Federal  Uni- 
ty which  they  themselves  have  helped  to  constitute,  and  in  this 
spirit  I  accept  and  thank  you  for  these  courtesies."  [Applause.] 

Then  followed  a  loud  and  persistent  demand  for  Mr.  Lincoln 
to  say  something.  When  it  was  found  that  nothing  but  com- 
pliance with  its  wishes  would  quiet  the  crowd,  the  Mayor 
said  :  I  have  the  distinguished  honor  of  introducing  to  you 
Secretary  Lincoln."  Mr.  Lincoln  was  given  three  thundering 
cheers.     He  said,  — 

"  Fellow-citizens  of  Boston :  You  are  all  aware  that  it  is 
not  expected  or  intended  that  any  speeches  should  be  made 
on  this  occasion.  It  was  hoped  by  the  President  and  myself 
that  we  would  be  able  to  take  by  the  hand  a  few  of  you  and 


28  THE   WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

make  your  acquaintance.     I  can  only  thank  you  for  this  very 
kind  greeting."     [Applause.] 

Again  the  crowd  clamored  for  a  speech,  this  time  from 
Secretary  Chandler ;  like  Secretary  Lincoln,  he  was  unwilling 
to  disarrange  the  programme  that  had  been  agreed  upon,  but, 
like  him,  he  was  obliged  to  utter  a  few  words.  In  present- 
ing him,  Mayor  Green  said :  "I  have  the  great  pleasure  of 
introducing  Secretary  Chandler."  Again  the  hall  resounded 
with  plaudits  and  cheers.     Secretary  Chandler  said,  — 

"  Citizens  of  Boston  :  First  we  were  captured  by  the  Old 
Colony  Railroad,  secondly  by  the  Government  of  Massa- 
chusetts, thirdly  by  the  city  of  Boston,  and  now  we  seem 
to  have  been  taken  possession  of  by  the  people  of  the  city. 
[Applause.]  I  want  to  say  to  you,  fellow-citizens,  that  you 
have  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  militia  of  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts. [Applause.]  No  liner  military  display  by  better- 
organized  and  disciplined  soldiers  was  ever  made  on  Boston 
Common  than  has  been  made  by  your  citizen  soldiery.  [Ap- 
plause.] And  I  reflect,  fellow-citizens,  that  it  was  such 
soldiers  from  Massachusetts  as  were  assembled  on  Boston 
Common  who  went  out  from  this  city  in  1861  and  saved  the 
National  Capitol  to  the  American  Government.  [Applause.] 
And  what  I  desire  to  say  to  you  in  addition  to  thanking  you 
for  this  magnificent  reception  to  Massachusetts  and  to  Boston, 
and  for  courtesies  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  is 
that  I  hope  you  will  cherish  as  the  apple  of  your  eye  the 
militia  of  your  grand  old  Commonwealth."     [Applause.] 

After  shaking  hands  with  the  citizens,  the  President  and 
party  accompanied  the  Mayor  and  Committee  for  a  drive. 
Their  carriages  rolled  quickly  out  over  the  Mill-dam  to  Chest- 
nut Hill  Reservoir  and  around  the  beautiful  drive  on  the 
borders  of  the  lake,  and  thence  passed  through  a  number  of 
the  handsome  streets  in  the  Brookline  suburb,  finally  re- 
turning to  the  Brunswick  at  a  few  minutes  after  6  o'clock. 


STATE    AND   BOSTON   RECEPTION.  29 

Dinner  was  awaiting  them ;  and  after  a  few  minutes  the 
President  was  ushered  into  the  supper  room,  at  the  end  of 
the  corridor,  opposite  the  Venetian  parlor,  where  a  magnifi- 
cent repast  had  been  prepared.  The  room,  beautiful  in  itself, 
had  been  the  scene  of  busy  florists'  labors  all  day,  and  the 
scene  was  one  of  the  most  attractive  ever  witnessed  in  Boston. 
The  table,  which,  of  course,  ran  lengthwise  of  the  room,  was 
decorated  with  fruits  and  flowers  in  a  very  artistic  and  some- 
what unusual  manner.  Most  prominent  were  three  huge 
baskets  of  flowers,  mostly  roses  and  ferns,  one  at  each  end, 
and  the  third  and  largest  in  the  centre,  in  front  of  the  Presi- 
dent's plate.  Trailing  cissus  and  Failence  ferns  ran  on  the 
snow-white  cloth  from  plate  to  plate  and  from  dish  to  dish, 
and  scattered  over  the  table  at  frequent  intervals  were  small 
French  vases  holding  either  orchids,  Jacqueminot  roses, 
dahlias  or  violets,  or  combinations  of  these  flowers.  The 
whole  effect  was  admirable,  and  Messrs.  Twombly  &  Sons, 
the  artists,  were  frequently  commended  by  the  guests  as  they 
sat  at  the  table.  Another  pleasing  effect  was  produced  by 
hanging  the  chandeliers  with  garlands  of  small  white  flowers, 
with  their  blossoms  opening  down,  instead  of  festooning  them, 
as  is  usually  done,  with  smilax.  The  decorations  of  the  room 
were  no  less  tasteful  than  those  of  the  table.  Over  the  side- 
board hung  a  large  bronze  medallion  of  the  first  President, 
and  beneath  it,  on  the  sideboard  itself,  perched  an  eagle, 
bearing  small  silk  flags  representing  the  various  nations,  and 
protecting  a  floral  shield  of  exquisite  design.  The  lambre- 
quins around  the  room  were  hung  with  smilax  and  bouquets  ; 
in  the  two  small  window  recesses  were  growing  palms,  and 
in  the  bay  window  a  large  potted  Pandarus  Vetchi,  and  a 
Cyathea  palm  of  equal  dimensions.  Over  each  door  was 
suspended  a  bouquet. 

The  party  at  dinner  comprised  thirty-three.     His  Honor 
Mayor  Green  sat  at  the  head  of  the  table  (which  was  really 


30  THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

the  centre),  and  on  his  right  sat  President  Arthur.  On  the 
Mayor's  left  sat  Gov.  Long.  The  President's  right-hand  neigh- 
bor was  Collector  Worthington,  and  at  the  Governor's  left 
sat  Secretary  Chandler.  The  other  gentlemen  at  the  table 
were  Secretary  Lincoln,  Congressmen  Eanney  and  Morse, 
United  States  Attorney  Sanger,  Postmaster  Tobey,  First 
Assistant  Postmaster-General  Hatton,  Judge  Nelson  of  the 
United  States  District  Court,  District  Attorney  George  Bliss, 
of  New  York,  Gen.  N.  P.  Banks,  Hon.  C.  W.  Slack,  Com- 
modore Ralph  Chandler,  U.  S.  N.,  Mr.  Charles  E.  Miller,  of 
New  York,  Mr.  M.  W.  Cooper,  of  New  York,  Hon.  Solomon 

B.  Stebbins,  President  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  Mr.  S.  F. 
McCleary,  the  City  Clerk,  Mr.  Chester  A.  Arthur,  Jr.,  Mr. 

C.  L.  Best,  Mr.  Godfrey  Morse,  Mr.  T.  R.  Matthews,  Hon. 

D.  G.  Rollins,  of  New  York,  Hon.  Asa  French,  Mr.  M.  P. 
Kennard,  Hon.  D.  W.  Gooch,  President  Charles  E.  Pratt,  of 
the  Common  Council,  Mr.  Alderman  Hall,  Mr.  C.  M.  Bliss, 
of  New  York,  Mr.  Robert  Grant  and  Mr.  F.  J.  Phillips. 
The  banquet  was  of  the  most  sumptuous  character. 

As  soon  as  the  President  had  dined  the  time  had  come  for 
the  reception  tendered  him  by  the  city  of  Boston  For  it 
the  greater  part  of  the  ground  and  first  floors  of  the  Hotel 
Brunswick  had  been  prepared.  The  decorations  were  simple 
yet  tasteful.  Lines  of  green  were  run  around  the  walls,  and 
here  and  there,  at  window  spaces,  alcove  apertures  and  other  ap- 
propriate places ,  were  small  bunches  of  brilliant  flowers .  There 
were  added  a  few  rare  pot  plants  that  served  to  fill  up  some 
corners  that  hardly  needed  them,  but  yet  were  made  glorious 
by  their  glossy  leaves.  The  main  dining  hall  was  converted 
into  a  music  room ;  in  fine,  it  was  so  changed  that  no  sign  of 
its  normal  uses  was  left.  Its  floors  were  covered  with  Turk- 
ish rugs  ;  the  walls  were  ornamented  with  fine  paintings  ;  its 
windows  and  doorways  were  hung  with  handsome  draperies 
and  portieres.     Everywhere  there  were  wax-lights,  gas-lights 


STATE  AND    BOSTON    RECEPTION.  31 

and  electric  lights,  their  combined  glow  and  glimmer  and 
glare  flooding  the  rooms  with  a  radiance  that  was  nearly  as 
bright  and  far  more  fi  ting  than  that  of  day. 

All  those  who  came  —  and  the  arrivals  began  promptly  at 
9  p.m.  —  entered  the  house  by  its  Clarendon-street  doorway, 
where  they  were  met  by  City  Messenger  Peters  and  his 
assistants,  who  ushered  them  up-stairs  to  the  dressing  rooms, 
which  were  on  the  rear  corridor  of  the  first  floor  —  those  for 
ladies  being  on  the  right,  those  for  gentlemen  on  the  left. 
After  the  wraps  had  been  removed  there  was  an  informal 
grouping  in  the  passage-way,  along  which  the  company  slowly 
moved,  making  three  fourths  of  the  circuit  of  the  building  to 
the  grand  staircase,  down  which  it  passed  to  the  main  hall 
on  the  ground  floor.  Along  this  it  moved  to  its  extreme 
westerly  end,  thence  into  the  first  of  the  suite  of  parlors 
opening  from  it  there,  and  so  on  through  these  rooms,  in  the 
last  of  which  was  the  President  with  Mayor  Green.  His 
Honor  made  the  introductions,  which  took  considerable  time. 
The  ladies,  who  entered  on  the  left  of  their  escorts,  were 
presented  first,  and  then  the  gentlemen ;  for  many  the  Presi- 
dent had  a  few  pleasant  words  ;  to  others  he  simply  said,  "I 
am  happy  to  see  you,"  in  a  manner  that  carried  with  it  the 
conviction  that  he  meant  all  that  he  said.  After  the  Presi- 
dent had  been  spoken  to,  there  was  the  supper  room  in  the 
east  end  of  the  house  to  be  sought,  and  thence,  after  a  salad 
or  an  ice  had  been  eaten,  there  was  an  escape  into  the  small 
supper  room  and  the  music  room.  After  a  promenade  to 
the  strains  of  the  Boston  Cadet  Band  orchestra,  the  dressing 
rooms  were  returned  to,  the  carriages  were  sought,  and  the 
return  home  was  made.  Arrivals  and  departures  were 
looked  upon  by  a  crowd  that  numbered  thousands,  but  that 
was  so  kept  back  by  judicious  police  arrangements  that  it 
did  not  in  any  way  interfere  with  the  convenience  of  the 
guests. 


32  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

Full  dress  was  one  of  the  requirements  of  the  event,  and 
it  was  closely  complied  with  by  the  three  or  more  thousand 
who  were  present.  A  few  gentlemen  appeared  in  Prince 
Albert  coats  and  black  cravats,  but  all  the  others  were  in 
dress  coats  and  satin  ties,  or  in  military  or  naval  uniforms. 
All  the  ladies  were  arrayed  in  tasteful  costumes.  Many  of 
them  were  elegantly  as  well  as  expensively  dressed,  the 
attractions  of  beautiful  silks  in  all  the  fashionable  hues  being 
enhanced  by  family  diamonds  and  laces  and  other  jewels  and 
draperies  of  lesser  interest  and  value.  The  progress  through 
the  rooms  was  made  as  easy  and  comfortable  as  possible  by 
Messrs.  Nathan  G.  Smith,  Henry  Parkman,  William  F. 
Wharton,  Charles  H.  Orr,  James  G.  Freeman,  William  H. 
Whitmore,  Robert  Grant,  Charles  Albert  Prince,  Francis 
Peabody,  Jr.,  Hugh  Cochrane,  J.  Montgomery  Sears,  Henry 
M.  Martin,  W.  C.  Fisk,  George  P.  Sanger,  Jr.,  Louis  Cur- 
tiss,  William  K.  Millar,  John  J.  Hayes,  Prentis  Cummings, 
Malcolm  S.  Greenough,  M.  J.  Houghton,  George  L.  Hunt- 
ress,  Munroe  Chickering,  Nathan  Applet  on,  A.  Frank,  Roger 
Wolcott,  Henry  W.  Swift,  Frederick  A.  Winslow,  Otis 
Kimball,  B.  L.  Arbecam,  S.  A.  B.  Abbott,  A.  A.  Rand, 
Charles  J.  Prince,  John  F.  Andrew,  Christopher  P.  Dona- 
hue, who  acted  as  ushers,  and  who  were  ever  courteous  and 
ever  ready  to  comply  with  the  many  requests  that  were  made 
of  them.  Although  the  reception  nominally  came  to  an  end 
at  11  p.m.,  it  was  continued  until  well  past  midnight,  no 
shorter  lapse  of  time  being  sufficient  for  the  full  performance 
of  its  courtesies. 

The  number  of  invitations  issued  by  the  committee  was 
2210,  each  commanding  the  presence  of  a  lady  and  gentle- 
man, and  among  the  prominent  persons  invited,  very  few  of 
whom  were  absent,  were  the  following :  Gov.  Long  and 
staff,  Lieutenant-Governor  Weston  and  the  Executive  Coun- 
cil,  Chief  Justice   Morton   and   Associate    Justices   Field, 


STATE  AND    BOSTON    11ECEPTION.  33 

Devens  and  Charles  Allen  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Chief 
Justice  Brigham  and  Associate  Justices  of  the  Superior 
Court,  of  whom  Judges  Rockwell,  Pitman,  Colburn,  Gard- 
ner, Staples,  Knowlton,  Blodgett  and  Mason  were  present, 
Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Eice,  Hon.  F.  W. 
Lincoln,  Jr.,  Hon.  J.  M.  Wightman,  Hon.  William  Gaston, 
Hon.  Henry  L.  Pierce,  Hon.  Samuel  C.  Cobb  and  Hon.  F. 
O.  Prince,  all  ex-Mayors  of  Boston ,  General  Nathaniel 
Wales,  staff,  field  and  line  officers  of  the  First  Brigade ; 
Gen.  B.  F.  Peach,  Jr.,  staff,  field  and  line  officers  of  the 
Second  Brigade  ;  Collector  Worthington  and  Deputy  Collec- 
tors Fiske,  Munroe,  Barnes  and  Swift ;  Gen.  A.  B.  Under- 
wood, Charles  W.  Slack,  M.  P.  Kennard,  Sub-Treasurer; 
Hon.  E.  S.  Tobey,  Postmaster;  Hon.  Horace  Gray  and  Hon. 
John  Lowell,  and  Hon.  Thomas  L.  Nelson  of  the  United 
States  Court,  Hon.  George  P.  Sanger,  Gen.  N.  P.  Banks, 
Col.  J.  F.  Head,  Major  T.  J.  Eckerson,  Capt.  J.  F.  Weston, 
Lieut.  II.  D.  Borup,  Capt.  N.  C.  Cook,  Col.  C.  L.  Best, 
Capt.  JohnEgan  and  Gen.  N.  B.  McLaughlin,  of  the  United 
States  Army ;  Commodore  O.  C.  Badger,  Capt.  Ralph  Chan- 
dler, Lieut.  Com.,  A.  S.  Snow,  Capt.  R.  L.  Plythian,  E.  D. 
Robie,  C.  H.  Baker,  Lieut.  Col.  E.  B.  Hebb,  Lieut.  S.  J. 
Logan,  all  of  the  U.  S.  Navy;  Capt.  J.  Mack  and  field  and 
staff  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company  ;  Gen. 
B.  F.  Butler,  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen ;  C.  Wolff,  C.  S.  Gile, 
H.  C.  Adams,  C.  A.  Henderson,  W.  II.  Stuart,  Horace  N. 
Fisher,  E.  C.  Hammer,  Henri  Verleye,  S.  B.  Schlesinger, 
J.  M.  Rodocanachi,  E.  M.  Brewer,  B.  C.  Clark,  Jose  M. 
Aguayo,  C.  L.  Bartlett,  G.  Lootz,  M.  Crosby,  W.  Brandt 
Storer,  Croiz  Antonio  Furro,  Joaquin  M.  Torroza,  Oscar 
Iasigi  and  Luther  Carroll,  Foreign  Consuls  residing  in  Bos- 
ton; Hon.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Hon.  Oliver  Ames, 
Waldo  Adams,  Hon.  Josiah  G.  Abbott,  Edward  Atkinson, 
Thomas   B.  Aldrich,  John   F.  Andrew,  Nathan   Appleton, 


34  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Nathaniel  J.  Bradlee,  F.  Quincy  Browne,  J.  Tisdale  Brad- 
lee,  Rev.  Joshua  P.  Bodfish,  Martin  Brimmer,  Edward 
Burgess,  Causten  Browne,  A.  A.  Burrage,  A.  W.  Boardman, 
Mrs.  Ole  Bull,  Hon.  S.  Z.  Bowman,  Mrs.  James  M.  Bebee, 
George  H.  Bond,  Dr.  Henry  I.  Bowditch,  H.  P.  Bowditch, 
Dr.  Henry  J.  Bigelow,  Dr.  W.  S.  Bigelow,  Hon.  R.  R. 
Bishop,  Hon.  S.  W.  Boardman,  Hon.  George  S.  Boutwell, 
H.  J.  Bowerman,  William  Bliss,  Matthew  Bolles,  William 
H.  Baldwin,  Henry  F.  Coe,  T.  Jefferson  Coolidge,  Hon. 
John  W.  Candler,  Hon.  E.  W.  Converse,  Dr.  David  W: 
Cheever,  Charles  R.  Codman,  U.  H.  Crocker,  Frederick 
Crowninshield,  Miss  Maria  Cabot,  Parker  C.  Chandler,  Arthur 
Cabot,  Dr.  Samuel  Cabot,  Samuel  Cabot,  Jr.,  Gen.  P.  A. 
Collins,  Charles  F.  Choate,  Linus  M.  Child,  Geo.  P.  Denny, 
Thomas  Dana,  Oliver  Ditson,  A.  S.  Dabney,  Walter  Dabney, 
L.  S.  Dabney,  R.  H.  Dana,  M.  F.  Dickinson,  Jr.,  Charles 
F.  Donnelly,  Rev.  Chas.  F.  Dole,  Gen.  M.  T.  Donohoe,  Dr. 
De  Gersdorff,  Wm.  Endicott,  Jr.,  Percival  Leveritt,  Samuel 
Eliot,  Charles  W.  Eliot,  Dr.  Calvin  Ellis,  Prof.  Wm.  Ever- 
ett, Julius  Eichberg,  JohnM.  Forbes,  Col.  Jonas  H.  French, 
Isaac  Fenno,  Charles  E.  Fuller,  John  S.  Farlon,  Hon. 
Rufus  S.  Frost,  Dr.  Reginald  H.  Fitz,  William  H.  Forbes, 
Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham,  Hon.  James  A.  Fox,  A.  A.  Fol- 
som,  John  L.  Gardner,  Patrick  Grant,  John  C.  Gray,  Jr., 
Charles  E.  Grinnell,  Prof.  E.  Palmer  Gould,  II.  II.  Hunne- 
well,  Dr.  John  Homans,  Alphenus  Hardy,  E.  B.  Haskell, 
Hon.  E.  R.  Hoar,  Samuel  Hoar,  Franklin  Haven,  Jr.,  Col. 
Wm.  Y.  Hutchings,  Clement  Hugh  Hill,  Francis  L.  Higgin- 
son,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  Dr.  Charles  D.  Homans,  Mrs. 
Julia  Ward  Howe,  Col.  John  Jeffries,  E.  D.  Jordan,  Jerome 
Jones,  Francis  Jacques,  Henry  P.  Kidder,  E.  AY.  Kinsley, 
Col.  Theodore  Lyman,  A.  A.  Lawrence,  Gen.  Samuel  C. 
Lawrence,  Weston  Lewis,  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  Solomon 
Lincoln,  William  Caleb  Loring,  Dr.  S.   K.  Lothrop,  John 


STATE  AND   BOSTON   RECEPTION.  35 

Lathrop,  Col.  Thomas  L.  Livermore,  Mrs.  James  Lodge,  Mrs. 
James  Lawrence,  Hon.  Leopold  Morse,  William  Minot,  Jr., 
R.  M.  Morse,  Jr.,  Thomas  Motley,  Dr.  Francis  Minot,  Miss 
Abby  May,  Martin  Milmore,  David  Nevins,  Hon.  Charles  J. 
Noyes,  Gen.  F.  A.  Osborne,  Richard  Olney,  Dr.  J.  P.  Oliver, 
James  R.  Osgood,  Rev.  Jeremiah  O'Connor,  Rev.  H.  Roe 
O'Donnell,  Edgar  Parker,  George  Putman,  Hon.  Albert 
Palmer,  Avery  Plumer,  R.  M.  Pulsifer,  Robert  Treat  Paine, 
Jr.,  H.  W.  Putman,  F.  H.  Peabody,  Jacob  Pfaff,  Dr.  Henry 
P.  Quincy,  General  Samuel  M.  Quincy,  Miss  Mary  Quincy, 
Hon.  Joseph  S.  Ropes,  General  A.  P.  Rockwell,  Hon. 
Thomas  Russell,  Benjamin  S.  Rotch,  W.  R.  Robeson,  Dr. 
Le  Baron  Russell,  Hon.  A.  A.  Ranney,  Maj.  Geo.  B. 
Russell,  John  P.  Spaulding,  Maj.  J.  Henry  Sleeper,  Gen. 
R.  H.  Stephenson,  Lemuel  Shaw,  Gen.  Horace  Binney 
Sargent,  Ignatius  Sargent,  Prof.  Charles  S.  Sargent,  Geo. 
O.  Shattuck,  Moorfield  Storey,  O.  H.  Samson,  Mrs.  Mary 
L.  Seavy,  Dr.  Lucy  Sewall,  Mrs.  Dr.  Mary  J.  Safibrd, 
John  IT.  Sturgis,  R.  H.  Stearns,  Hon.  Thomas  Talbot,  Ben- 
jamin H.  Ticknor,  Howard  M.  Ticknor,  Mrs.  Fenno  Tudor, 
Henry  Van  Brunt,  Gen.  Francis  A.  Walker,  J.  Huntington 
Wolcott  and  Gen.  Charles  F.  Wolcott. 


36  THE  WEBSTEIi   CENTENNIAL, 


IV. 

MARSHFIELD,  THE  HOME  OF  WEBSTER. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER  was  born  at  Salisbury,  N.H.,  Jan- 
uary 18,  1782.  It  was  deemed  advisable  for  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  to  defer 
the  celebration  of  the  event  until  the  fall ;  and  as  Salisbury 
was  remote,  and  Marshfield  was  Webster's  chosen  home, 
the  committee  decided  on  the  choice  of  the  latter  as  the 
best  place  to  commemorate  his  memory.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  October  12  the  town  of  Marshfield  was  early  astir,  in 
anticipation  of  the  great  event  to  occur  within  its  borders, 
and  of  the  distinguished  personages  who  were  to  honor  it  by 
their  presence.  The  day  broke  with  the  sky  laden  with  dull, 
heavy  clouds,  betokening  rain,  and  the  wind  was  in  a  quarter 
which  presaged  a  storm  ;  but  before  eight  o'clock  it  shifted  and 
the  clouds  lightened,  but  did  not  break  away.  The  highways 
were  less  deserted  than  is  usual  in  the  first  hours  of  daylight. 
Here  and  there  was  an  occasional  farmer  driving  in  with  his 
family  from  a  neighboring  town  to  make  a  day  of  it.  As 
the  morning  advanced  the  chill  easterly  wind  proved  a  source 
of  great  discomfort,  but  the  clouds  grew  less  threatening  as 
the  day  advanced.  Not  until  nine  o'clock  did  the  crowds 
from  the  surrounding  country  begin  to  assemble  in  large 
numbers.  Conveyances  of  every  conceivable  fashion  were 
driven  in.  Many  came  by  the  regular  morning  trains  from 
the  south,  and  others  in  the  neighborhood  wended  their 
way  on  foot.  Crowds  lingered  around  the  station,  waiting 
the  arrival  of  the  Presidential  train,  and  others  visited 
the  Webster  homestead  and  the  tomb  of  the  departed  states- 
man. 


MARSIIFIELD,    THE    HOME   OF    WEBSTER.  37 

At  no  season  does  the  quiet  Marshfield  homestead  appear 
adorned  in  so  many  of  nature's  beauties  as  on  the  morn  of  an 
Indian  summer  day,  when  a  few  frosts  have  touched  the 
forest  with  a  glory  of  autumnal  colors.  At  dawn  to-day, 
before  even  the  van  of  the  multitude  had  broken  the  natural 
quiet  of  the  scene,  the  delights  of  the  spot  which  won  the 
heart  of  Daniel  Webster  were  perhaps  seen  at  best  advan- 
tage. The  showers  of  the  previous  night  had  improved  the 
sandy  roads  and  washed  a  coating  of  dust  from  the  foliage 
near  the  public  thoroughfare.  Going  from  the  village  of 
Marshfield,  or  rather  from  the  point  where  the  railroad  left 
the  visiting  multitude,  the  Webster  mansion  is  approached 
over  an  ordinary  country  road,  which  winds  through  the 
woods  up  a  gentle  slope  for  something  more  than  half  a  mile. 
One  or  two  houses  and  a  few  clearings  are  all  that  break  a 
gorgeous  panorama  of  rainbow  tints,  which  hang  dancing 
upon  the  branches  as  far  into  the  woods  as  eye  can  reach. 
Rarely  has  this  rich  grandeur  of  nature's  handiwork  been 
surpassed.  It  is  a  season  of  exceptional  delight  for  all  who 
find  pleasure  in  the  lavish  treasures  of  the  fountain  of  art. 
The  chill  winds  of  September  across  the  marshes  intensified 
the  coloring  of  the  heavy  foliage,  and  the  beauty  of  a  Marsh- 
field  landscape  seemed  to  be  at  its  height.  It  is,  then, 
through  such  scenes  that  half  the  distance  to  the  Webster 
mansion  is  passed.  As  a  higher  elevation  is  reached,  breaks 
in  the  trees  disclose  glimpses  of  the  blue  waters  of  Massa- 
chusetts bay,  a  mile  or  two  away,  and  scattered  along  the 
horizon  are  always  to  be  seen  the  sails  of  the  nation's  com- 
merce, which  the  friends  of  Webster  know  he  loved  to  watch 
on  their  course,  from  his  windows.  A  few  rods  west  of  the 
grounds  surrounding  the  modern  Webster  mansion  is  a  large 
tract  of  pasture  land,  whereon  were  spread  the  tents  for  the 
principal  exercises  of  the  day's  celebration.  Stretching  away 
in  unbroken  expanse  to  the  marshes,  which  seem  to  broaden 


38  THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

into  the  ocean  beyond,  the  view  from  the  road  at  this  point 
is  enchanting.  Facing  the  sea  to  the  northeast,  a  glimpse  is 
caught  of  the  Webster  homestead  through  the  trees  at  the 
right  of  the  immediate  foreground.  A  quarter  of  a  mile  to 
the  left  there  rise  the  white  stones  of  the  little  cemetery  on 
a  commanding  knoll,  whereon  the  tomb  of  the  great  man  is 
the  central  object. 

Passing  on  from  this  point  of  observation,  the  road  turns 
slightly  toward  the  south,  and  the  entrance  to  the  Webster 
estate  is  by  a  pleasant  driveway  beneath  a  brilliant  canopy 
of  foliage.  The  destruction  of  the  original  mansion  by  fire 
in  February,  1878,  has  not  been  forgotten  by  the  public,  and 
the  loss  is  keenly  felt.  The  little  building  a  few  yards  from 
the  house,  often  used  by  Mr.  Webster  as  a  study,  was  the 
only  thing  to  escape  the  flames.  The  present  mansion  occu- 
pies the  exact  site  of  the  old  one,  but  it  is  of  modern  con- 
struction, and  therefore  of  no  historical  interest.  Commo- 
dious barns  and  other  out-buildings  have  replaced  those 
destroyed,  and  the  present  aspect  of  the  estate  is  that  of  a 
country  residence  of  a  retired  merchant  of  ample  means. 
Since  the  death  of  Ashburton  Webster,  a  few  months  after 
the  fire  of  1878,  Mrs.  Fletcher  Webster,  daughter-in-law  of 
the  departed  statesman,  has  had  control  of  the  property,  and 
during  nearly  all  the  time  has  occupied  the  mansion. 

Within  the  lands  of  the  estate  the  ceremonies  of  the  day 
were  to  be  enacted.  The  place  resembled  a  miniature  camp. 
The  most  noticeable  objects  were  the  two  large  dinner  tents 
for  the  use,  respectively,  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society 
and  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company.  That 
of  the  former  was  nearest  the  road,  between  which  and  the 
dinner  tent  are  three  smaller  tents  for  the  ladies'  and  recep- 
tion rooms.  The  larger  canvas  was  oblong  in  shape,  and 
within  were  accommodations  for  about  five  hundred  persons  at 
sixteen  tables.    Eaised  on  a  platform  alone:  the  south  side  was 


MARSHFIELD,    THE    HOME    OF   WEBSTER.  39 

a  table  sixty  feet  long  for  the  officers  and  guests  of  the  Soci- 
ety, to  the  number  of  twenty-five,  and  directly  in  front  and 
below  were  the  tables  for  the  members  of  the  press.  Running 
from  south  to  north  were  thirteen  long  tables,  eight  having 
plates  for  fourteen  persons  on  each  side,  and  the  remainder, 
three  at  one  end  and  two  at  the  other,  seating  thirty-six 
people  each.  Flanking  the  officers'  table,  on  either  side,  and 
running  in  the  same  direction,  w^ere  two  smaller  tables,  each 
for  fourteen  persons.  The  ornamentation  of  the  tent  was 
simple,  and  consisted  of  a  line  of  flags  of  all  nations  pendent 
from  the  top  of  the  pitch,  with  streamers  of  red,  white  and 
blue  carried  from  the  intervals  between  the  flags  to  the  sides,- 
those  at  each  end  being  arranged  in  semi-circular  form  around 
the  tent  poles. 

Near  by,  and  at  such  a  distance  that  when  the  flaps  were 
raised  they  would  make  a  covered  way  between  the  two, 
were  the  dining  quarters  of  the  Ancients.  This  was  like  the 
other  in  form  and  size,  and  its  interior  arrangements  were 
very  similar.  Along  the  north  was  a  raised  table,  with 
plates  for  eighteen,  for  the  commander  and  members  of  his 
staff,  and  below,  on  either  side,  two  tables,  with  accommoda- 
tions for  fourteen  each,  were  placed  for  the  invited  guests  of 
the  corps.  The  main  body  of  the  command  was  provided 
for  by  ten  tables  running  north  and  south,  and  capable  of 
seating  seventeen  persons  on  each  side,  making  provision  for 
a  total  of  three  hundred  and  eighty-six  persons  within  the 
tent.  The  decoration  was  more  elaborate  than  in  the  Soci- 
ety's tent,  with  which  it  corresponded  as  far  as  concerns  the 
arrangement  of  flags  and  streamers,  but,  in  addition,  around 
the  top  of  the  flap,  tri-colored  bunting  was  gracefully  draped, 
and  behind  the  commander's  seat  was  a  glory  of  flags,  in  the 
centre  of  a  lace  drapery  arranged  on  a  partition  for  the  entire 
length  of  the  table. 

To  the  east  of  the  dinner  tents,  and  makimr  three  sides  of 


40  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

a  square,  on  which  they  faced  inward,  were  three  large  wall 
tents,  each  divided  into  two  compartments.  That  fronting 
to  the  west,  and  with  a  large  flag-pole  rising  above  it,  from 
which  floated  the  President's  flag  above  the  new  banner  of 
the  Ancients,  denoted  that  here  were  the  quarters  designed 
for  the  most  honored  guest  of  the  day.  As  befitting  the 
high  station  of  its  occupant,  its  interior  was  gotten  up  more 
elaborately  than  was  to  be  seen  elsewhere.  In  the  first  com- 
partment entrance  a  board  floor  was  laid,  and  on  that  was  a 
Persian  rug  surrounded  with  a  wide  border  of  Prussian  blue. 
On  the  pole  which  rose  in  the  centre  was  a  national  shield, 
draped  with  flags  and  lace  in  a  tasty  design,  while  above, 
streamers  were  carried  from  the  pole  to  all  parts  of  the  room. 
At  the  top  of  the  walls  was  lace  drapery,  caught  up  in  grace- 
ful loops  by  large  plaques,  representing  the  four  seasons, 
and  a  liberal  use  of  bunting  heightened  the  eflect  of  the  dra- 
pery. In  front  of  the  centre  pole  was  a  bamboo  table,  and 
near  it  a  comfortable  reclining  chair  upholstered  in  a  rich 
crimson  material.  The  rear  apartment  was  intended  for  pri- 
vate use,  where  the  President  could  receive  and  entertain  his 
personal  friends,  and  where  he  could  be  secure  from  intru- 
sion. The  approach  to  it  Avas  marked  by  parted  curtains 
formed  of  flags,  with  a  large  shield  and  eagle  disposed  to 
advantage  above  it,  and  apparently  held  in  position  by  two 
flags  on  either  side,  whose  folds  were  allowed  to  fall  uncon- 
fined.  The  centre  pole  in  this  apartment  was  relieved  of  its 
bareness  by  a  pretty  arrangement  of  flags,  and  bunting  and 
lace,  caught  up  as  before  with  plaques,  were  freely  used, 
although  not  to  the  same  extent  as  in  the  public  or  reception 
room  of  the  tent.  In  rear  of  all  was  a  small  tent  for  toilet 
purposes. 

Fronting  to  the  north  on  the  square  was  a  tent  of  form  and 
size  like  to  the  President's  for  the  use  of  Commander  Mack. 
Its  interior  arrangements  were  similar,  except  that  the  floor 


I 

k 


V 


MARSHFIELD,    THE    HOME    OF   WEBSTER.  41 

was  of  nature's  own  manufacture,  and  the  decorations  were 
far  less  elaborate.  Directly  opposite  was  the  tent  of  the 
Committee  of  Arrangements,  in  which  no  decoration  was 
visible  save  that  for  the  inner  man.  Three  quartermaster's 
tents  were  placed  north  of  and  parallel  with  the  dinner  tent, 
and  to  the  west  were  the  quarters  of  the  commissary  and  the 
kitchens,  while  away  off  in  one  corner  were  the  headquarters 
of  Chief  Wade  of  the  State  Police.  The  whole  field  was 
roped  in,  for  which  purpose  the  ropes  and  stakes  so  familiar 
on  occasions  around  the  parade  ground  of  Boston  Common 
were  brought  into  service.  Standing  in  the  centre,  the  out- 
lines of  the  Webster  mansion  could  be  seen  through  the  trees, 
and  in  the  far  distance  occasional  glimpses  of  the  deep  blue 
waters  of  Massachusetts  Bay  rounded  off  the  scene. 

The  Webster  estate,  as  seen  in  1852,  just  before  his  death, 
has  been  so  fully  described  in  one  of  the  Boston  dailies  that 
we  give  the  description  almost  entire : 

It  was  more  of  a  magnificent  farm  with  elegant  ap- 
pendages, than  the  mere  elegant  residence  of  a  gentleman ; 
a  place  indeed,  which,  if  in  England,  could  hardly  be 
described  without  using  the  word  baronial.  There  were 
in  the  estate  about  2000  acres  of  undulating  and  marshy 
land,  suggesting  the  appropriateness  of  the  name  of  "  Marsh- 
field,"  and  sloping  down  to  the  sea.  The  farm  was  com- 
bined from  those  of  Thomas,  a  noted  royalist  in  the 
Revolution,  and  Winslow,  the  latter  having  been  famous 
in  the  history  of  the  Commonwealth.  The  estate  came  into 
Mr.  Webster's  possession  about  the  year  1827,  during 
the  administration  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  here  he 
gratified  his  taste  for,  and  manifested  his  knowledge  of, 
the  science  of  agriculture.  In  that  direction  Mr.  Webster 
accomplished  more  good  than  can  be  easily  estimated.  He 
was  amply  compensated  for  his  pains  and  outlay  in  the  satis- 


42  THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

faction  of  possessing  one  of  the  best  farms  in  New  England. 
It  was  a  good  deal  to  say  in  those  days  that  the  flower-garden 
covered  more  than  an  acre  of  ground,  including  the  richest 
and  rarest  varieties.  In  arboriculture  Mr.  Webster  was  con- 
spicuous, an  imposing  array  of  forest  trees  of  every  size  and 
variety  adorning  the  avenues,  slopes  and  otherwise  unutilized 
areas.  Mr.  Webster  was  unable  to  patronize  nurseries  dur- 
ing the  inception  of  his  enterprise,  and,  from  the  seed-plant- 
ing of  his  own  hand,  there  had  in  1852  risen  more  than 
100,000  trees  to  a  respectable  growth,  and  which  since  that 
time  must  have  increased  in  size  and  multiplied  in  number, 
supposing  them  to  have  been  undisturbed,  in  a  manner  to 
astonish  the  far-sighted  originator,  could  he  now  look  down 
upon  the  unbrageous  fields  of  Marshfield.  Of  fruit  trees  there 
was  an  abundance,  the  old  orchard  containing  300  trees  and 
the  new  one  1000  in  most  vigorous  and  flourishing  condition. 
The  estate  was  admirably  laid  out,  the  landscape-gardening 
being  so  exquisite  that,  as  the  different  walks,  paths,  avenues 
and  drives  were  traversed,  every  element  in  the  refined  and 
beautified  landscape  appeared  to  be  exactly  where  it  should 
be — in  the  very  fittest  place.  That  which  has  been  claimed 
as  essential  to  every  perfect  landscape  was  not  lacking  in 
Marshfield.  The  trio  of  lovely  lakes  has  been  often  expa- 
tiated upon,  and  to  marked  degree  enhanced  the  beauties  of 
the  prospects.  They  were  near  to  the  mansion,  and  fed  by 
the  purest  of  springs.  In  the  largest  of  these  lakes,  Mr. 
Webster,  by  the  device  of  providing  peculiar  islands  in  the 
centre,  was  enabled  to  domesticate  a  flock  of  wild  geese  —  a 
rare  accomplishment.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  rural  scenery 
of  Marshfield,  under  the  master  touch  of  this  wonderful 
man,  must  have  been  a  congenial  retreat  for  painter  and  poet. 
And  the  effect  was  augmented  by  the  outlying  territory,  sup- 
plementing the  immediate  prospects,  the  immense  expanse 
of  marsh-land,  streams,  islands,  forest  patches,  all  skirted 


MARSHEIELD,    THE   HOME    OF   WEBSTER.  43 

by  the  beaches  stretching  far  away  to  right  and  left,  with 
old  Ocean  filling  out  the  vistas  into  a  magnificent  out- 
spread of  delightful  scenery.  We  now  come  to  the  build- 
ings of  the  estate,  of  which  there  were  some  30.  The  man- 
sion, out-houses,  residence  of  the  superintendent,  dairyman's 
house  and  fisherman's,  the  landlord's  office,  gardener's  prem- 
ises and  all  those  structures  which  cluster  about  the  large 
barns  and  stables  —  these  give  the  air  of  large  population 
to  the  estate,  and  impress  the  observer  with  the  presence 
and  power  of  varied  life.  The  mansion  itself  was  worthy  of 
extended  scrutiny.  The  main  portion  was  built  in  1774,  and 
the  subsequent  additions  more  than  doubled  the  size  and  com- 
pletely modernized  the  appearance.  Its  location  was  on  the 
summit  of  a  beautiful  lawn,  and  it  stood,  completely  girded  by 
a  piazza,  under  the  delightful  shadow  of  a  great  elm.  Below 
stairs  there  were  nine  elegantly  furnished  rooms,  all  en  suite, 
the  chief  apartment  being  the  gothic  library.  Articles  of 
vertu  abounded  throughout  the  establishment,  and  the  con- 
spicuous results  of  womanly  taste  were  everywhere  manifest. 
There  were  portraits  of  Mr.  Webster  by  Stuart  and  Healey ;. 
one  of  Lord  Ashburton  ;  of  Judge  Story,  by  Harding ;  of 
other  members  of  the  family,  together  with  many  other  ex- 
cellent artistic  productions,  both  of  painter  and  sculptor.  Mr. 
Webster's  daughter  Julia  made  a  deep  impression  on  that 
home,  and  to  her  he  was  indebted  for  his  finely  designed 
library.  His  entire  collection  of  books,  just  before  his  death, 
was  valued  at  $40,000. 

Mr.  Webster  gives  a  description  of  Marshfield  in  a  letter 
to  Mrs.  Curtis:  "And  now,  from  generalities  to  facts.  An 
old-fashioned  two-story  house,  with  a  piazza  (stoop?)  all 
round  it,  stands  on  a  gentle  rising,  facing  due  south,  and 
distant  fifty  rods  from  the  road  which  runs  in  front.  Be- 
yond the  road  is  a  ridge  of  hilly  land,  not  very  high,  covered 
with  oak  wood,  running  in  the  same  direction  as  the  road, 


44  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

and  leaving  a  little  depression  or  break  exactly  opposite  the 
house,  through  which  the  southern  breezes  fan  us  of  an  after- 
noon. I  feel  them  now,  coming,  not  over  beds  of  violets, 
but  over  Plymouth  bay,  fresh,  if  not  fragrant.  A  carriage- 
way leads  from  the  road  to  the  house,  not  bold  and  impu- 
dent, right  up  straight  to  the  front  door,  like  the  march  of  a 
column  of  soldiers,  but  winding  over  the  lower  parts  of  the 
ground,  sheltering  itself  among  trees  and  hedges,  and  getting 
possession  at  last,  more  by  grace  than  force,  as  other  achieve- 
ments are  best  made.  Two  other  houses  are  in  sight,  one  a 
farm-house,  cottage-built,  at  the  end  of  the  avenue,  so  covered 
up  in  an  orchard  as  to  be  hardly  visible ;  the  other  a  little 
farther  off  in  the  same  direction,  that  is,  to  the  left  on  the 
road,  very  neat  and  pretty,  with  a  beautiful  field  of  grass  by 
its  side.  Opposite  the  east  window  of  the  east  front  room 
stands  a  noble  spreading  elm,  the  admiration  of  all  beholders. 
Beyond  that  is  the  garden,  sloping  to  the  east,  and  running 
down  till  the  tide  washes  its  lower  wall.  Back  of  the  house 
are  such  vulgar  things  as  barns  ;  and  on  the  other  side,  that 
is,  to  the  north  and  northwest,  is  a  fresh- water  pond  of  some 
extent,  with  green  grass  growing  down  to  its  margin,  and  a 
good  walk  all  round  it,  one  side  the  walk  passing  through  a 
thick  belt  of  trees,  planted  by  the  same  hand  that  now  indites 
this  eloquent  description.  This  pond  is  separated  on  the 
east  by  a  causeway  from  the  marshes  and  the  salt  water,  and 
over  this  causeway  is  the  common  passage  to  the  northern 
parts  of  the  farm.  I  say  nothing  of  orchards  and  copses 
and  clumps  interspersed  over  the  lawn,  because  such  things 
may  be  seen  in  vulgar  places.  But  now  comes  the  climax. 
From  the  doors,  from  the  windows,  and,  still  better,  from 
twenty  little  elevations,  all  of  which  are  close  by,  you  see 
the  ocean,  a  mile  off,  reposing  in  calm,  or  terrific  in  storm,  as 
the  case  may  be.  There,  you  have  now  Marshfield  ;  and  let 
us  recapitulate  :   1.  The  ocean  :  as  to  that,  when  it  is  men- 


MARSHFIELD,    THE    HOME    OF   WEBSTER.  45 

tioned,  enough  is  said.  2.  A  dry  and  pure  air:  not  a  bog, 
nor  a  ditch,  nor  an  infernal  gutter,  in  five  miles  ;  not  a  parti- 
cle of  exhalation  but  from  the  ocean  and  a  running  New 
England  stream.  3.  A  walk  of  a  mile,  always  fit  for  ladies' 
feet,  when  not  too  wet,  through  the  orchard  and  the  belt.  4. 
Five  miles  of  excellent  hard  beach-driving  on  the  seashore, 
commencing  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  house.  5.  A  region 
of  pine  forest,  three  miles  back,  dark  and  piney  in  appear- 
ance and  in  smell,  as  you  ever  witnessed  in  the  remotest 
interior." 


46  THE  WEBSTEK  CENTENNIAL. 

V. 
THE  WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

WHILE  the  preliminary  arrangements  were  being  com- 
pleted in  Marshfield,  the  officers  of  the  Society  and 
Committee  of  Arrangements  were  completing  their  work. 
The  President,  Stephen  M.  Allen,  and  his  aids,  were  each  at 
the  Brunswick,  awaiting  the  pleasure  of  their  guests. 

The  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery,  who  had  been  un- 
tiring in  their  efforts  to  make  the  occasion  the  grandest  of 
their  long  history,  and  who  had  for  .the  first  time  in  a  great 
many  years  changed  the  time  of  their  fall  field-day  celebra- 
tions in  order  to  do  escort  duty  to  the  Webster  Historical 
Society  and  their  guest,  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
were  promptly  at  their  armory  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and,  notwithstanding  a  raw,  cold  east  wind  was  blowing, 
the  old  corps  turned  out  over  two  hundred  men,  exclusive  of 
band,  drum  corps  and  staff.  After  breakfast  was  served, 
the  formation  was  made  by  Adjutant  McDonough,  and, 
headed  by  the  Boston  City  band,  with  Simpson's  drum  corps, 
the  column  commenced  the  march  to  the  Brunswick. 

The  following  is  the  roster  of  the  corps  :  — 

Captain,  Capt.  John  Mack,  of  Boston ;  First  Lieutenant,  Capt.  Samuel 
Hichborn,  of  Boston ;  Second  Lieutenant,  Sergt.  William  P.  Jones,  of 
Boston;  Adjutant,  Maj.  John  McDonough,  of  Boston. 

First  Sergeant  of  Infantry.  Col.  A.  N".  Proctor,  of  Boston;  Second 
Sergeant,  Sergt.  Edward  E.  Wells,  of  Boston;  Third  Sergeant,  Edwin 
Warner,  of  Boston;  Fourth  Sergeant,  Capt.  Samuel  H.  Babeock,  of 
Boston;  Fifth  Sergeant,  Col.  Henry  A.  Stevens,  of  East  Cambridge; 
Sixth  Sergeant,  Lieut.  J.  Henry  Taylor,  of  Chelsea. 

First  Sergeant  of  Artillery,  Dr.  E.  W.  Sweet,  of  Worcester;  Second 
Sergeant,  Sergt.  William  M.  Maynard,  of  Hyde  Park ;  Third  Sergeant, 
William  Tyner,  of  Boston;  Fourth  Sergeant,  Samuel  Farquhar,  of  New- 
ton; Fifth  Sergeant.  James  M.  Gleason,  of  Boston;  Sixth  Sergeant. 
Sergt.  William  X.  Mills,  of  Boston. 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  47 

Chief  of  Staff.  Maj.  Charles  W,  Stevens;  Surgeon.  Dr.  Melville  E. 
Webb;  Assistant  Surgeons,  Lieut.  John  Sullivan  and  Lieut.  Thomas 
Risteaux;  Paymaster,  Vincent  Lafonne;  Assistant  Paymaster,  Lieut. 
George  II.  Allen;  Quartermaster,  George  P.  May;  Sergeant  Major, 
Lieut.  J.  P.  Frost ;  Quartermaster  Sergeant.  John  II.  Peak ;  Commissary 
Sergeant,  James  II.  Smith ;  Hospital  Steward,  Alfred  S.  Dinsmore ;  ( Jolor 
Bearers,  Capt.  John  S.  Blair  and  Sergt.  William  P.  Bacon;  Directing 
Sergeant,  William  C.  Pfaff;  Right  General  Guide,  Capt.  Edwin  R.  Frost  ; 
Left  General  Guide,  Lieut.  George  E.  Hall;  Chaplains,  Rev.  E.  C.  Bolles, 
Rev.  II.  Bernard  Carpenter,  Rev.  E.  A.  Horton. 

Honorary  Staff,  Past  Commanders,  Col.  Isaac  II.  Wright.  Col.  Mar- 
shall P.  Wilder,  Capt.  James  A.  Fox,  Major  Gen.  N".  P.  Banks,  Maj. 
George  O.  Carpenter,  Col.  Edward  Wyman,  Capt.  A.  A.  Folsom.  Maj: 
Dexter  II.  Follett,  Capt.  John  L.  Stevenson,  Col.  Charles  W.  Wilder  and 
Capt.  W.  H.  Cundy,  Brig.  Gen.  B.  F.  Peach,  Jr.,  Col.  W.  A.  Bancroft, 
Col.  B.  F.  Bridges,  Jr.,  Brig.  Gen.  I.  S.  Burrell,  Maj.  George  S.  Merrill, 
Maj.  Charles  A.  Young,  Lieut.  Col.  Edward  Hobbs,  Capt.  E.  ,).  Trull, 
Capt.  Benjamin  F.  Field,  Jr.,  Capt.  Ralph  Carpenter,  Col.  A.  C.  Eddy; 
witli  Capt.  G.  A.  Fuller,  Capt.  Frank  S.  Belton  and  Lieut.  G.  Henry  Wit- 
thaus,  Lieut.  II.  R.  McMurray,  Lieut.  II.  H.  Brockway  and  Lieut.  Benja- 
min Gurney,  all  of  the  Old  Guard  of  New  York. 

After  leaving  the  armory,  the  route,  the  column  being 
headed  by  a  fine  squad  of  police  from  station  2,  was  through 
South  Market,  Commercial,  State,  Washington,  School,  Tre- 
mont  streets,  to  the  Park-street  gate,  thence  across  the  Com- 
mon to  Boylston  street,  and  down  that  street  to  the  Hotel 
Brunswick. 

Arriving  at  the  hotel,  where  Mayor  Fox,  of  Cambridge, 
assisted  by  Major  Davis,  of  the  Ancients  and  Honorables,  was 
in  charge  of  the  arrangements  of  the  occasion,  the  organiza- 
tion deployed  m  line  and  saluted  President  Arthur  as  he 
emerged  from  the  hotel,  at  9.10  o'clock,  accompanied  by 
President  Allen,  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society.  The 
procession  then  started  in  the  following  order  :  — 

The  military  Division  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery,  eighty- 
four  muskets,  preceded  by  the  band. 

First  carriage,  containing  President  Arthur,  Mayor  Green,  and  Stephen 
M.  Allen,  President  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society. 

Second  carriage  —  Secretaries  Lincoln  and  Chandler,  Chester  A.  Arthur, 
Jr. 


48  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Third  carriage  —  Judge  Sanger,  Judge  Nelson  and  ex-Gov.  Banks. 

Fourth  carriage  — Assistant  Postmaster  Hatton,  of  New  York,  Secre- 
tary Phillips,  Postmaster  Tobey  and  Mr.  Cooper. 

Fifth  carriage— G.  W.  Burnham,  of  New  York,  Judge  Warren  and 
Stillman  B.  Allen. 

Sixth  carriage  — Ex-Governor  Farnham,  of  Vermont,  Judge  Miller, 
Oliver  Ames  and  Ex-Governor  Pace. 

Seventh  carriage  — Edward  F.  Thayer,  Mr.  Tilton  and  Geo.  C.  Rich- 
ardson. 

Eighth  carriage  — Horace  G.  Allen,  Francis  M.  Boutwell,  Thomas  S. 
Lockwood,  Thomas  H.  Cummings. 

Carriages  containing  the  City  Committee  of  Entertainment,  and  invited 
guests  of  the  Society. 

The  Civic  Division  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery,  preceded 
by  a  drum  corps. 

The  President's  carriage  was  flanked  by  ex-Commanders 
Folsom  and  Cundy  of  the  Ancients,  with  six  members  on 
either  side  wearing  the  uniform  of  the  Worcester  Continen- 
tals. At  the  rear  of  the  carriages  was  a  detachment  of  the 
Ancients.  On  starting,  the  President  was  cheered  by  the  stu- 
dents of  the  Institute  of  Technology,  who  stood  on  the  steps 
of  that  institution.  The  procession  then  moved  through 
Bolyston  street,  Park  square,  Eliot  and  Kneeland  streets  to 
the  South-street  side  of  the  Old  Colony  station,  the  President 
being  heartily  greeted  along  the  way.  The  train  carrying 
the  Ancients,  Avhich  was  announced  for  9.15,  did  not  start 
until  9.50.  It  comprised  nine  cars.  This  was  followed  pre- 
cisely at  ten  o'clock  by  the  President's  train.  The  tram  for 
Marshnekl  which  started  ten  minutes  after  the  President's 
had  five  cars,  as  did  also  the  one  which  left  before  the  escort 
train. 

Groups  of  people  were  gathered  at  stations  to  see  the  train 
pass,  but  no  stop  was  made  until  Hingham  Avas  reached, 
where  Governor  Long  joined  the  party,  accompanied  by  Dr. 
B.  Joy  Jeffries  and  Colonel  W.  T.  Bouv«.  A  great  crowd 
gathered  at  this  station,  and  the  President  bowed  his  acknowl- 
edgments from  the  rear  platform  of  the  car. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  49 

The  Ancients'  train  arrived  at  11.02  o'clock,  and  the  line 
was  at  once  formed,  to  be  ready  to  move  on  the  arrival  of 
the  Presidential  train  a  few  minutes  later.  Details  from 
several  of  the  Plymouth  County  Grand  Army  Posts  had 
arrived  in  the  mean  time,  and  they  took  position  at  the  rear 
of  the  line.  The  parade  was  in  charge  of  the  Ancient  and 
Honorable  Artillery  Company,  that  organization  acting  as 
escort  to  the  Webster  Historical  Society  and  its  guests. 
Col.  vYyman  acted  as  Marshal.  The  arrivals  by  the  public 
trains  had  been  large,  and  when  at  11.06  o'clock  the  Presi- 
dent's train  drew  up  at  the  platform  there  was  a  great  crowd 
waiting  to  receive  him.  He  immediately  stepped  upon  the 
platform,  accompanied  by  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen,  President 
of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  Gov.  Long,  the  members 
of  the  Cabinet,  and  other  distinguished  guests.  Carriages 
were  in  waiting,  and  as  the  party  took  their  places  in  the 
line  there  sounded  from  a  high  hill  opposite  the  tented  field 
the  roar  of  cannon,  as  a  detachment  of  Battery  A,  of  Boston, 
began  firing  a  Presidential  salute  of  twenty-one  guns.  The 
line  of  march  was  taken  up  in  the  following  order  :  — 

Platoon  of  mounted  police  under  command  of  Chief  Wade.  Band  of 
2G  pieces. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company  (infantry).  Col.  Wyman, 
Marshal  and  Aids. 

Carriages  containing  President  Arthur  and  other  guests,  as  follows  :  — 

First  —  The  President,  the  Governor,  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen. 

Second  —  The  Mayor  of  Boston,  the  Collector  of  the  Port  of  Boston, 
Secretary  Lincoln,  Secretary  Chandler. 

Third  — Chester  A.  Arthur,  Jr.,  Assistant  Postmaster-General  Hatton, 
Hon.  E.  S.  Tobey,  Private  Secretary  Phillips. 

Fourth  — C.  F.  Choate,  M.  W.  Cooper,  C.  N.  Bliss,  Hon.  Oliver  Ames. 

Fifth  — Gov.  Plaisted,  of  Maine,  Gov.  Bell,  of  New  Hampshire, 
ex-Gov.  Farnham,  of  Vermont.  ex-Gov.  Pice,  of  Massachusetts. 

Sixth— Gov.  Bigelow,  of  Connecticut,  Gov.  Littlefield,  of  Rhode 
Island,  ex-Gov.  Boutwell,  of  Massachusetts,  ex-Gov.  Banks,  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

Seventh  — President  Bartlett,  of  Dartmouth  College,  Charles  A.  White, 
lion.  Thos.  Pussell. 


50  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Eighth  — Mrs.  Stephen  M.  Allen.  Mrs.  II.  G.  Allen,  Mr.  C.  A.  Grin- 
nell. 

Ninth  — Gordon  Webster  Burnham,  of  New  York,  Judge  G.  W. 
Warren. 

Tenth  —  Senator  Hoar.  Senator  Dawes,  Hon.  George  B.  Loring,  ex- 
Gov.  Jewell,  of  Connecticut. 

Coombs*  Fifth  Regiment  Band,  of  South  Abington,  25  pieces. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company. 

Plymouth  County  Division  Grand  Army  of  the  .Republic,  Benj.  S. 
Atwood,  Division  Commander ;  Charles  D.  Nash,  Assistant  Adjutant 
General.    Details  from  the  following  Posts  :  — 

Fletcher  Webster  Post  13,  of  Brockton,  Alfred  C.  Monroe,  Com- 
mander,  40  men. 

Post  76,  of  Plymouth,  John  Shannon,  Commander,  50  men. 

Post  8,  of  Midclleboro',  B,  W  Bump,  Commander,  30  men. 

Post  31,  of  Scituate,  A.  A.  Seaverns,  Commander,  40  men. 

Post  74,  of  Rockland,  Isaac  Hopkins,  Commander.  60  men. 

Post  73,  cf  Abington,  A.  H.  Wright,  Commander,  60  men. 

Post  78,  of  South  Abington,  Timothy  Reed,  Commander,  100  men. 

Post  111,  of  Pembroke,  Henry  H.  Collamore,  Commander,  40  men. 

Post  14,  of  Hingham,  I.  Frank  Goodwin,  Commander,  60  men. 

Post  120,  of  South  Scituate,  Alphonso  Thomas,  Commander,  40  men. 

Post  127,  of  Hanson,  Charles  Atwood,  Commander,  35  men. 

Post  124,  of  East  Bridgewater,  W.  H.  Osborne,  Commander,  50  men. 

Honorary  Members  of  the  Wrebster  Historical  Society,  in  Barges. 

The  WTebster  Historical  Society  on  foot. 

Rear  Guard  of  Police. 

Among  those  in  the  ranks  of  the  Webster  Historical  So- 
ciety were  Judge  Nelson,  of  the  United  States  District  Court, 
District  Attorney  Sanger,  Hon.  Robert  C.  Pitman,  of  the 
Superior  Bench,  Sheriff  Clark,  of  Suffolk,  Hon.  Leopold 
Morse,  Hon.  Eustace  C.  Fitz,  Aldermen  Slade  and  Hall,  and 
President  Pratt,  of  the  Boston  City  Council.  In  addition  to 
the  guests  named  above  as  occupying  carriages  were  the  fol- 
lowing persons  :  Rev.  Elisha  Mulford,  D.D.,  Col.  Joseph  A. 
Harwood,  Hon.  George  W.  Johnson,  of  Milford,  Rev.  Minot 
J.  Savage,  Rev.  E.  C.  Bolles,  Hon.  Charles  E.  Gallagher, 
Hon.  James  Smith,  Rev.  J.  P.  Bodfish,  Hon.  Joseph  M. 
Wightman,  Hon.  F.  W.  Lincoln,  T.  S.  Amory,  Esq.,  George 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  51 

W.  Morse,  Esq.,  of  Newton,  R.  G.  F.  Candage,  Esq.,  of 
Brookline,  Hon.  E.  S.  Converse,  of  Maiden,  Nathan  WaiTen, 

of  Waltham,  Gen.  Horace  Binney  Sargent,  of  Salem,  Hon. 
Jeremiah  Gatchell,  of  Blackstone,  Hon.  James  W.  Stock- 
well,  of  Sutton,  George  II.  Patch,  Department  Commander 
of  the  Grand  Army,  Hon.  Harmon  Hall,  of  Saugus,  Harbor 
and  Land  Commissioner  Nye,  George  W.  Ware,  Jr.,  of  I  >*I- 
mont,  Hon.  Warren  E.  Locke,  of  Norwood,  II.  O.  Houghton, 
of  Cambridge,  Hon.  Selwyn  Z.  Bowman,  S.  N.  Gilford,  Hon. 
B.  W.  Harris,  Hon.  John  W.  Candler,  Hon.  Francis  B. 
Hayes,  Eben  D.  Jordan,  George  B.  Hyde,  Insurance  Com- 
missioner Julius  H.  Clarke,  C.  F.  Choate,  President  Old 
Colony  Railroad,  Gov.  Head,  of  New  Hampshire,  Gen.  Jno. 
Eaton. 

The  line  proceeded  as  promptly  as  possible  over  the  heavy 
sandy  road.  The  first  half  of  the  line  went  directly  to  the 
Webster  mansion.  The  Second  Division,  beginning  with 
the  second  corps  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery 
Company,  turned  to  the  left  at  the  field  where  the  tents  were 
spread,  where  the  President's  escort  also  returned  after  hav- 
ing proceeded  to  the  Webster  house. 

It  was  precisely  11.50  o'clock  when  the  head  of  the  pro- 
cession filed  into  the  grounds  of  the  Webster  mansion.  As 
the  carriage  containing  the  President  of  the  United  States 
passed  up  the  winding  avenue,  under  the  graceful  elms  and 
sturdy  maples  planted  by  Mr.  Webster  with  his  own  hand, 
the  sun,  which  had  been  previously  obscured  in  heavy  clouds, 
suddenly  burst  forth,  and  President  Arthur  entered  the  house 
in  the  full  brightness  of  the  meridian  sun.  It  was  a  pictur- 
esque sight  —  groups  of  people  scattered  over  the  spacious 
grounds  awaiting  the  approach  of  the  distinguished  guests. 
A  photographer  was  present,  and  secured  a  view  of  the  Pres- 
idential party  at  the  entrance  of  the  Webster  mansion.  Six 
members  of  the  G.   A.  R.  of  Plymouth  County  acted  as 


52  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

guards  on  the  portico  of  the  mansion,  whose  piazzas  were 
crowded  with  the  neighbors  of  the  hostess.  On  alighting:  from 
the  carriage,  President  Arthur  stepped  into  the  portico,  and 
Mrs.  Fletcher  Webster  and  the  Selectmen  of  Marshfield  at  the 
same  moment  appeared  in  the  vestibule,  and  President  Arthur 
was  presented,  as  were  Gov.  Long,  Chester  A.  Arthur,  Jr., 
and  several  others  of  the  distinguished  guests.  Mrs.  Web- 
ster extended  a  cordial  greeting  to  the  President  and  guests, 
and  a  formal  welcome  was  given  by  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen, 
President  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society.     He  said,  — 

"  Mr.  President :  In  behalf  of  Mrs.  Fletcher  Webster,  the 
surviving  possessor  of  this  domain,  as  well  as  for  the  Web- 
ster Historical  Society,  I  welcome  you  to  the  home  of  Daniel 
Webster,  the  defender  of  the  Constitution  under  which  you 
were  made  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Republic.  The  associa- 
tions and  teachings  of  this  spot  cannot  fail  to  add  new  confi- 
dence to  your  position  and  hopes,  and  impress  you  with  all 
the  strength,  dignity  and  beauty  of  that  high  responsibility 
which  Providence  so  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  thrust  upon 
you.  To  your  coolness  and  strength  of  nerve  under  the  na- 
tion's calamity  ;  to  your  intellectual  and  moral  independence, 
your  patriotism  and  fidelity,  all  so  powerfully  felt  and  quickly 
known  through  the  whole  country  and  around  the  world,  it  was 
owing  that  the  Republic  passed  its  most  dangerous  and 
solemn  crisis  without  serious  public  difficulty.  It  is  due  to 
your  discretion  and  statesmanship  with  its  moral  dignity  and 
independence,  that  confidence  was  so  soon  restored  and  has 
since  been  so  fully  maintained.  In  behalf  of  this  Society,  on 
the  books  of  which  your  name  was  enrolled  as  an  early  mem- 
ber, I  thank  you  for  this  attention  and  presence.  May  the 
occasion  prove  valuable  to  us  all." 

When  Mr.  Allen  had  done  speaking,  the  President  re- 
sponded briefly,  expressing  his  pleasure  that  he  was  able  to 
visit  the  home  of  a  man  who  was  so  famous  in  his  time,  and 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  53 

whose  influence  since  his  death  has  been  so  powerful  and  so 
widespread.     The  President  and  Mrs.  Webster  then  passed 
into  the  house,  where,  at  the  end  of  the  great  hall  opposite  the 
door,  an  informal  reception  took  place,  the  President  stand- 
ing directly  in  front  of  the  celebrated  paintings  of  Mr.  Web- 
ster and  Grace  Fletcher,  which  he  turned  to  and  attentively 
studied.     At  the  President's  left  stood  Mrs.  Webster ;  next 
to    her   Mrs.    James    Campbell,  and   then   the  two   Misses 
Devereaux.     The   following  were  the  guests  of  the  house 
present :  Hon.  James  A.  Campbell  and  wife,  of  Philadelphia, 
Mr.  George  Fred  Williams,  of  Boston,  Mr.  W.  K.  Armistcad, 
and  the  two  Misses  Devereaux.     Conspicuous  in  the  mansion 
were  the  elegant  articles  of  art  and  adornment  saved  from 
the  conflagration  of  the  Webster  mansion ;  on  the  right  of 
the  hall,   near  the  entrance,  hung  the  portraits  of  Edward 
and  Fletcher  Webster,  sons  of  Daniel,  one  of  whom  died  in 
the  Mexican  war ;  the  other  being  killed  at  the  head  of  his 
regiment  —  the     12th    Massachusetts  —  in    the    late    war. 
The  swords  which  each  carried  during  those  wars  hung  be- 
tween the  pictures.      A  large  number  of  the  more  promi- 
nent guests  of  the  occasion  were  present  at  the  house.     At 
12.15  the  following  list  of  guests  invited  to  remain  to  the 
breakfast  was  read,  the  persons  being  seated  on  the  right 
and  left  of  the  President,    who  occupied  the  head  of  the 
table,  in  the  following  order:  Mrs.  Webster,  Mrs.  Stephen 
M.  Allen,  Secretary  Lincoln,  President  Allen  of  the  AYeb- 
ster  Historical  Society,  Mrs.  Campbell,  Secretary  Chandler, 
Assistant  Postmaster-General  Hatton,  C.  A.   Arthur,  Jr., 
Mayor  Green,  President  Choate  of  the  Old  Colony  Kail  road, 
Oliver    Ames,   Gen.    N.    P.    Banks,    Judge    Hatch,    Judge 
Nelson,  Judge  Russell,  President  Bartlett,  Gov.  Bell,  of  New 
Hampshire,  ex-Gov.  Boutwell,  Gov.  Plaisted,  of  Maine,  Mr. 
Baker,  Mr.  Armistead,  Hon.  Marshall  Jewell,  Gov.  Long, 
Gov.    Littlefield,   of  Rhode   Island,  Gov.  Bigelow,  of  Con- 


54  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

necticut,  Gov.  Farnham,  of  Vermont,  Capt.  Sprague,  ex-Gov. 
Rice,  Mr.  Bliss,  Mr.  Chas.  Austin  White,  Mr.  Kellogg,  G. 
W.  Burnham,  Mr.  Phillips,  the  President's  private  secretary, 
and  Roland  Worthington.  The  names  of  Andrew  J.  Hall, 
Lucius  Slade,  Chas.  E.  Pratt  and  Godfrey  Morse,  of  the 
Boston  Committee,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Geo.  W.  Wright  and 
Miss  Wright,  of  Duxbury,  friends  of  the  President,  were 
called,  but  they  were  unable  to  reach  the  room  because  of 
the  crowd.  The  tables  were  spread  for  forty-two  guests, 
ten  of  whom  were  members  of  the  household  or  their 
guests.  This  breakfast  was  given  by  Messrs.  Blake,  Hatch 
and  Sprague,  Selectmen  of  Marshfield.  At  12.30  the  break- 
fast was  put  upon  the  two  tables  spread  in  the  front  and  back 
parlors  at  the  right  of  the  hall.  The  President  then  descended 
from  the  upper  floor,  whither  he  had  retired  to  arrange  his 
toilet,  and  the  party  entered  the  breakfast  parlors  as  their 
names  were  called.  This  entertainment  occupied  something 
more  than  an  hour.  The  procession  then  re-formed  in  the 
same  order  as  the  march  from  the  station,  Mrs.  Fletcher 
Webster  and  Mrs.  S.  M.  Allen  riding  with  President  Arthur 
and  the  Hon.  S.  M.  Allen. 

AT  THE  TOMB. 

The  Webster  lot  occupies  the  crest  of  the  little  hill  which 
for  two  centuries  has  been  the  burial-place  of  many  of  the 
dead  from  the  neighboring  towns.  The  cemetery  is  now  in 
charge  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  and  fresh  inter- 
ments are  but  rarely  made.  The  lot  wherein  are  buried  the 
remains  of  nine  members  of  the  Webster  family  is  a  rather 
small  enclosure,  surrounded  by  a  plain  iron  fence,  according 
to  the  custom  of  twenty-five  and  fifty  years  ago.  The  tomb 
of  Daniel  Webster  occupies  a  rectangular  wing  in  the  rear 
and  facing  the  entrance  which  fronts  to  the  east.  The  exte- 
rior appearance  of  the  tomb  is  simply  that  of  a  large  grass- 


THE    WEBSTER    GENTEXXIAL.  55 

grown  mound,  upon  which  is  an  upright  marble  slab  of  the 
simplest  description,  with  shape  and  inscription  as  here  indi- 
cated : 


DANIEL    WEBSTER. 


Nothing  else  marks  the  resting-place  of  Daniel  Webster. 
In  other  positions  are  placed  head-stones,  suitably  inscribed, 
indicating  the  graves  of  other  members  of  the  family.  For 
the  ceremonies  of  the  day  the  tomb  was  made  conspicuous  by 
decorations  which,  while  of  the  simplest  nature,  were  most 
appropriate.  Nothing  could  be  more  fit  than  the  arch  of 
autumn  leaves  over  the  entrance  to  the  lot,  and  the  like 
design  at  the  top  of  the  mound,  to  embellish  the  resting- 
place  of  the  dead,  while  the  glory  of  the  coloring,  the  paint- 
ing of  nature  on  the  limbs  and  foliage,  as  if  in  recognition  of 
the  occasion,  might  be  most  appropriately  understood  as  a 
tribute  to  the  fame  and  greatness  of  the  man  whose  honored 
dust  lies  within.  This  embellishment  of  the  tomb  was  in  far 
better  taste  and  keeping  with  the  day  and  time  than  would 
have  been  the  most  elaborate  and  costly  display  of  flowers. 
A  platform,  with  speakers'  desk,  and  seats  for  the  principal 
guests,  had  been  erected  in  front  of  the  lot.  It  had  been 
heavily  draped  in  evergreen  and  flowers.  On  a  white  back- 
ground, in  letters  of  green,  was  the  inscription,  "I  still  live." 
The  tomb  itself  was  hidden  under  a  mass  of  evergreen  and 
dahlias,  while  festoons  of  green  were  hung  between  the  stones 
marking  the  graves  of  the  other  members  of  the  Webster 
family. 

Directly  in  the  rear  of  the  platform  centre,  beneath  an  arch 
of  evergreens,  Avas  an  oil  painting  of  Daniel  Webster.  Upon 
the  President  alighting  at  the  platform,  and  after  all  the 
ladies  and  gentlemen  comprising  the  party  had  taken  their 
seats,  the   City  band    played  a   dirge.     Mr.  Elmore   Allen 


56  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

Pierce,  of  Boston,  then  read  an  original  hymn,  which  the 
whole  audience  afterward  sang  to  the  air  of  "Zion."  The 
following  is  a  copy  of  the  hymn  :  — 

WEBSTER'S  TOMB. 

Darkly  sealed  the  mausoleum,  keeping 

Saered  dust,  so  long  at  rest ; 
Nations  mourn  and  peoples  weeping, 
Green  the  turf  so  fondly  blest, 
Faith  enshrining 
Joins  our  souls  with  those  arisen, 

Angels  twining 
Wreathe  our  prayers  in  one  for  heaven. 

Not  alone  the  statesman  sleepeth, 

Who  listening  Senates  held  command :  ' 

Stalwart  sons  the  tomb  here  keepeth, 
Martyred  with  the  Union  band. 
Sorrows  blending 
Link  the  States  from  sea  to  sea. 

Never  ending 
Triumphing  in  unity. 

Rock  of  ages !  cleft,  to  duty 

Kindly  hold  these  granite  walls, 
Shielding  age  and  youth  and  beauty, 
Yield !  when  God  the  Saviour  calls. 
Angels  guiding, 
Mouldering  dust  return  to  life. 

Faith  abiding, 
Rise !  beyond  a  world  of  strife. 

After  the  singing,  the  following  prayer  was  offered  by  Eev. 
Ebenezer  Alden,  D.D.,  of  Marshfield,  who  officiated  at  the 
funeral  of  Daniel  Webster  in  1852  :  — 

Let  us  pray  :  O  God,  thou  art  our  God,  as  thou  wert 
our  fathers'  God,  and  we  will  extol  thee.  As  we  gather  to- 
day around  these  graves  of  this  ancient  place  of  burial,  Ave 
pray  that  thou  wilt  impress  us  duly  both  with  mortality  and 
immortality.  As  Ave  come  to  commemorate  the  birth  and 
life  of  him  Avho  lies  here  Ave  pray  thee  that  all  these  services 
in  which  Ave  are  engaged  may  tend  to  lift  our  thoughts  to 
thee,  and  to  fit  us  more  faithfully  to  honor  thee  here  in  life 


THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  57 

and  fulfil  the  station  in  life  in  which  thou  hast  placed  us.  We 
thank  thee  for  the  early  influences  which  surrounded  thy  dis- 
tinguished servant  whose  life  and  death  we  to-day  commem- 
orate. We  thank  thee  for  all  the  struggles  of  his  early  man- 
hood, through  which  thou  didst  carry  him  with  such  success, 
and  we  thank  thee  for  all  the  wisdom  and  grace  that  thou 
didst  impart  to  him  in  subsequent  years.  We  thank  thee  for 
all  the  influences  he  exerted  for  good  as  he  went  up  to  the 
house  of  God  ;  as  he  evinced  his  deep  reverence  for  thee  ;  as 
he  engaged  in  the  various  works  and  responsibilities  as  Sen- 
ator and  as  counsellor  for  the  nation  ;  as  he  directed  the  affairs 
of  our  Commonwealth  and  of  our  nation ;  and  now  we  pray 
thee  that  so  far  as  his  life  was  in  accordance  with  thy  truth, 
so  far  as  he  is  an  example  of  the  fear  of  God,  so  far  as 
he  displayed  the  great  truths  which  have  been  the  salva- 
tion of  our  nation,  although  by  thy  holy  providences  thou 
hast  called  us  to  pass  through  this  sacrifice  of  blood  and 
of  treasure,  we  pray  thee  as  we  review  his  life  and  the  seal 
Avhich  thou  hast  set  to  the  great  principles  which  he  has  ex- 
pounded, that  thou  wouldst  to-day,  as  our  minds  go  back  to 
him,  help  us  to  learn  such  lessons  as  shall  be  for  our  own 
good  and  that  of  our  entire  people  We  come  to  commit  to 
thee  all  who  are  here.  We  pray  now  especially  for  our 
President,  that  thou  wouldst  guard  his  life,  and  that  thou 
wilt  impart  to  him  all  that  wisdom  and  that  grace  in  the  per- 
formance of  duties  which  he  needs  so  much.  And  we  be- 
seech thee  that  thou  Avouldst  be  with  his  counsellors  and  with 
all  the  Senators  and  members  in  Congress,  teaching  them 
wisdom  and  righteousness.  We  pray  thee  for  the  Governor 
of  this  Commonwealth,  and  for  all  in  authority,  and  for  our 
entire  people  throughout  the  whole  country  —  East,  West, 
North  and  South.  We  pray  that  this  commemorative  occa- 
sion may  tend  to  cement  the  affections  of  this  people,  may 
draw  us  forth  in  gratitude  to  thee  for  the  great  men  thou 


58  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

hast  given  us,  and  fit  us  for  all  the  scenes  before  us.  Be  with 
us  in  all  time  to  come ;  may  the  nation  be  preserved  not  as 
a  beacon,  but  as  a  bright  and  shining  example  to  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  of  virtue,  of  temperance,  of  righteousness  and 
of  the  fear  of  God.  And  now  we  pray  that  thou  wouidst  be 
with  us  not  only  at  this  hour,  but  throughout  the  services  of 
the  day ;  and  we  pray  not  alone  that  all  our  country  ma}^  be 
blessed,  but  that  thy  kingdom  may  come  throughout  all  the 
world,  and  that  that  time  may  be  imminent  when  thou  mayst 
be  acknowledged  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  on  whom 
are  many  crowns.  Forgive  us  our  sins  ;  sanctify  our  affec- 
tions ;  guide  us  individually  through  the  pilgrimage  of  life  ; 
and  when  we  finish  our  course,  receive  us  to  thee  and  to 
immortality.  And  this  we  ask  through  our  Saviour,  of  the 
one  living  and  true  God,  to  whom  with  thee  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  Ave  ascribe  the  praise  of  our  salvation.     Amen. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  STEPHEN  M.  ALLEN. 

Distinguished  Friends  and  Fellow  Citizens : 

The  sepulchre  before  us  has  been  thrice  consecrated,  and 
is  a  sacred  one.  More  than  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago  the 
spot  on  which  it  stands  Avas  first  dedicated  to  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty,  the  parent  of  all  true  political  union.  Here, 
some  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
early  settled,  and  here,  at  last,  "they  rested,"  surrounded  by 
these  beautiful  headlands  and  harbors,  by  these  green  hills 
and  fertile  plains.  Here  Avere  laid,  a  century  and  a  half 
later,  some  of  the  fathers  of  the  ReATolution,  sons  and  grand- 
sons of  the  Pilgrims,  Avorthy  successors  of  their  fame  and 
glory.  BorroAving  republican  ideas  from  Aristides  and 
Cato  through  the  historic  pages  of  Greece  and  Rome,  these 
sturdy  patriots  traced  them  through  Hampden  and  Cromwell, 


THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  59 

and  saw  them  rise  and  fall  under  the  bloody  conflicts  of  the 
Commonwealth.  Later  on,  in  their  own  hands,  these  prin- 
ciples gleamed  with  living  light  at  Lexington  and  Bunker 
Hill,  and  boldly  rose  to  a  zenith  of  brilliancy  at  Monmouth 
and  at  Yorktown.  Here,  on  this  spot,  after  three  quarters  of  a 
century,  the  green  turf  was  again  broken,  this  time  for  the  de- 
fender of  that  Union  which  their  blood  had  so  firmly  cemented 
—  Daniel  Webster;  and  here,  father  and  mother,  sons  and 
daughters,  grandsons  and  granddaughters,  alike,  now  lie  side 
by  side  in  one  common  family  tomb.  Among  the  family  thus 
grouped  together  here  in  death,  there  are  names  of  historic 
interest,  —  names  that  glorified  and  adorned  nearly  every 
walk  of  life,  from  the  towering  statesman  clothed  in  gar- 
ments of  high  civic  life,  and  the  patriotic  soldier  bathed  in 
flowing  blood,  to  the  humbler,  but  no  less  beautiful,  types 
of  domestic  virtue,  and  noble  representatives  of  filial  and 
maternal  love.  Scarce  a  year  has  elapsed  since  this  family 
circle  was  made  well-nigh  complete  by  the  death  of  one 
who,  though  mature  of  mind  and  in  middle  life,  was  still 
possessed  of  all  the  charms  of  youth  and  of  beauty.  Around 
this  enclosure  we  see  studded  here,  in  strong  contrast  with 
the  green  mound  at  its  head,  dots  of  white  marble,  small 
shafts  with  individual  names  in  small  letters,  indicative  alike 
of*  the  modesty  and  high  worth  of  the  dust  that  lies  beneath. 
On  searching  further,  we  find  a  plain  slab  in  no  way  distin- 
guished from  the  rest  but  by  the  simple  name  of  "Daniel 
Webster."  Not  a  single  syllable,  not  a  character,  more. 
There  is  no  epitaph  to  sound  his  praises,  no  word  to  celebrate 
his  mighty  deeds  and  triumphs.  Even  for  the  dates  of  his 
birth  and  death  —  dates  so  deeply  engraven  on  every  true 
American  heart — there  is  no  indication  here,  and  we  have  to 
look  for  them,  with  his  sublime  declaration  of  faith,  elsewhere. 
All  is  silent,  and  it  is  meet  that  it  should  be  so.  For  silence 
is  golden ;  silence  quickens  thought,  and  the  simple  name  of 


GO  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Webster — synonymous  with  patriotism,  the  Constitution  and 
the  constitutional  history  of  the  country  —  suffices  to  tell  the 
story  of  his  great  life.  To  every  patriotic  American  it 
speaks  louder  than  tongues  of  brass,  and  reveals  more  of  his 
true  grandeur  and  glory  than  volumes  could  unfold.  It  tells 
of  a  life  spent  in  teaching  a  great  nation  to  be  just ;  of  life- 
long undivided  efforts  to  reconcile  and  unite  in  brotherly 
love  a  distracted  and  divided  people  ;  of  unfaltering  devotion 
to  the  cause  of  the  Union  ;  of  a  profound  study  and  masterly 
exposition  of  the  principles  underlying  the  American  Con- 
stitution, whose  history  is  his  history,  and  whose  growth 
was  symmetrical  with  his ;  and  finally,  of  a  generous  self- 
sacrifice  to  his  country's  welfare,  and  a  never-failing  readi- 
ness to  espouse  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice  wherever  and 
with  whomsoever  found. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  fit  spot  this  —  looking  out  upon  the  broad 
blue  ocean  so  beautifully  described  in  one  of  his  last  letters 
while  Secretary  of  State,  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  —  for  the  final  resting-place  of  him  whose  natal  cen- 
tennial we  celebrate  to-day. 

Fitting  too  to  be  thus  embraced  within  the  circling  dust 
of  Pilgrims  and  .Revolutionary  patriots,  inheritors  of  the 
same  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  fathers 
of  the  same  Republic  to  which  his  own  life  had  been  so  long 
and  so  fully  devoted.  With  such  associations,  with  such 
tender  memories  clinging  around  this  spot,  can  I  not  with 
propriety  exclaim,  "Tread  softly  —  the  ground  whereon  you 
stand  is  holy.     All  hail,  thrice-consecrated  spot !  " 

These  vivid  memories,  this  grave,  and  a  handful  of  earth, 
are  all  indeed  that  here  remain  to  remind  us  of  Webster.  But 
of  his  immortality  —  and  it  is  with  that  we  are  concerned 
more  especially  —  how  shall  I  speak  ?  Where  shall  I  find  lan- 
guage to  express  it  and  do  him  justice  ?  His  fame,  his  charac- 
ter, the  memory  of  his  great  deeds  and  actions  already  embla- 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  61 

zoned  upon  the  pages  of  history  in  characters  of  living  light, 
will  endure  forever.  Generations  of  Americans  yet  unborn, 
in  studying  the  needs  of  their  country,  will  think  and  speak 
of  him  with  gratitude  and  admiration.  And  in  every  land 
the  name  of  Webster  will  go  down  to  posterity  as  the  defender 
of  humanity's  cause,  and  the  invincible  champion  of  consti- 
tutional liberty. 

Deeply  impressed,  then,  with  the  greatness  of  my  subject, 
and  only  too  conscious  of  my  own  inability  to  render  unto 
Webster  the  things  that  are  Webster's,  the  honor  and  the 
glory  that  are  justly  due  him,  I  stand  here  to-day  as  one 
among  a  thousand  others,  a  simple  friend  of  the  departed 
statesman.  But,  mark  you  well,  I  am  not  here  to  champion 
the  cause  of  Webster.  He  needs  no  champion.  Choate  and 
Parker,  Curtis  and  Everett,  and  others,  have  done  this 
before  me  right  eloquently  and  well.  But  to-day  I  come 
and  invite  you  to  review  once  more,  and  reflect  with  me  on 
the  facts  of  his  well-spent  life.  To  examine  how  much,  if 
any,  of  truth  there  be  in  the  criticisms  so  freely  bestowed 
upon  his  course.  To  see  how  he  stood  in  comparison  with 
the  other  great  men  and  minds  of  his  time.  And  finally, 
to  recognize  his  transcendent  greatness  as  a  jurist,  an  ora- 
tor, and  a  statesman.  This  will  be  the  order  of  my  dis- 
course. 

In  the  order  of  time  and  in  the  great  tide  of  human 
events,  great  emergencies  call  for  correspondingly  great 
men ;  and  whether  men  present  themselves  in  the  line  of 
promotion,  or  go  with  a  single  bound  from  obscurity  to 
distinction,  their  titles  to  fame  are  equally  valid.  It  was 
an  emergency  in  religious  thought  that  made  of  Luther  a 
bold  reformer,  and  of  Loyola  a  strong  enthusiast.  It  was 
an  emergency  in  political  events  that  brought  Napoleon  and 
Cromwell  to  the  front,  and  gave  the  name  of  Great  to  Wash- 
ington.    And  so,  in  like  manner,  it  was  an  emergency  in 


62  THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

the  history  of  our  American  Constitution  that  made  of  Daniel 
Webster  almost  its  sole  exponent  and  interpreter,  lifting  him 
up  from  nothing  to  greatness,  from  obscurity  to  a  high  posi- 
tion, and  clothing  him  with  undying  fame  and  glory. 

Son  of  Ebenezer  and  Abigail  Eastman  Webster,  he  was 
born  at  Salisbury,  N.H.,  January  18,  1782,  at  the  dawn  of 
the  final  recognition  of  American  Independence,  and  at  the 
very  time  when  William  Pitt,  the  idol  of  British  royalty,  was 
coining  into  almost  regal  power.  It  was  in  a  small  frame 
cottage  erected  on  what  was  once  the  most  northerly  settled 
farm  in  New  England ;  it  was  in  midwinter,  with  snow- 
bound roads,  among  the  denudated  hills  where  the  hibernat- 
ing brown  bear  still  slept,  dreaming  of  coming  spring  ;  it  was 
in  a  pathless  wilderness  covering  cratered  caverns  from 
which  nightly  issued  the  gray  wolf  to  stalk  the  deer  in  his 
well-trodden  browsing  glen,  — that  the  future  statesman  and 
orator  first  saw  the  light  of  day.  Here,  with  the  Bible  as 
his  first  text-book,  so  early  learned  that  his  memory  could 
never  trace  back  his  first  attempt  at  reading  it,  and  with  the 
Constitution  of  his  country  printed  upon  his  pinafore,  his 
education  was  first  begun. 

Even  now,  methinks,  I  see  the  young  lad  listening  nightly, 
by  the  pale  light  of  the  tallow  dip,  or  the  flickering  of  the 
pitchwood-split,  to  the  fireside  tales  of  the  family,  or  itiner- 
ant clergy  going  their  stated  rounds.  And,  however  fan- 
ciful my  picture,  certain  it  is  that  here  he  first  learned  by 
heart  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  the  leading  events  of  the 
Revolution  which  separated  the  colonies  from  the  mother 
country.  Here  the  conflicting  opinions  of  English  states- 
men, which  then,  as  now,  were  a  puzzle  to  consistency, 
were  thoroughly  discussed.  And  here  it  was  that  his  breast 
first  glowed  with  the  fire  of  patriotism,  and  his  slumbering 
intellect  first  awakened  to  real  life  and  action,  — that  mighty 
intellect  which  in  after  years  was  to  shape  the  destinies  of 


XIAL. 


THE    WEBSTER    CEXTEXNI 


a  great  nation,  and  furnish  solution  to  problems  that  baffled 
for  two-score  years  nearly  thirty  millions  of  people.  That 
fervid,  generous,  far-reaching  patriotism  that  never  knew 
State  lines  or  sections,  but  only  a  whole  and  undivided 
country. 

Private  lessons  at  home,  with  incidental  labors  upon  the 
farm,  furnished  the  groundwork  of  his  primary  studies,  and 
enabled  him  to  enter  the  academy  at  Exeter.  Here,  with 
additional  teaching  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wood,  of  Boscawen,  he 
fitted  for  college,  entering  Dartmouth  at  fifteen,  the  same 
age  at  which  Burke,  with  whom  he  is  so  often  compared, 
was  matriculated  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 

Mr.  Webster  has  related  the  story  himself  when  his  father 
told  him  for  the  first  time  that  he  would  send  him  to  col- 
lege. "I  remember,"  says  he,  "the  very  hill  we  were  ascend- 
ing through  the  deep  snow,  in  a  New  England  puug,  when 
my  father  first  made  known  his  purpose  to  me.  I  could  not 
speak.  How  could  he,  I  thought,  with  so  large  a  family, 
and  in  such  narrow  circumstances,  think  of  incurring  so 
great  an  expense  for  me?  A  warm  glow  ran  all  over  me, 
and  I  laid  my  head  upon  my  father's  shoulder  and  wept. 
The  next  moment  I  felt  as  proud  as  a  Roman  consul  to  whom 
a  triumph  had  been  decreed."  Such  was  the  beginning  of 
.his  college  career ;  a  beginning,  auspicious  indeed,  to  say 
the  least,  and  the  sensitive  boy  already  seemed  to  foreshadow 
the  great  and  mighty  statesman. 

At  the  period  of  entering  college  it  is  safe  to  affirm  he  was 
acquainted  in  theory  with  the  politics  of  the  ojd  and  the  new 
world.  This  appears  in  all  his  early  correspondence,  and  the 
time  had  evidently  come  when  he  could  read  and  reason  from 
the  events  of  his  own  day  as  well  as  those  of  the  past. 
The  French  Revolution,  unlike  that  in  America  which  had 
been  so  successful,  was  on  the  wane.  Republican  ideas 
across  the  ocean  were  then  nearly  strangled,  this  time  by 


64  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

the  force  of  concentrated  intellect  alone.  With  young  Pitt 
the  premier  of  England,  republican  sympathy  died  early. 
With  Chatham,  his  noble  father,  it  had  a  longer  and  more 
natural  growth.  And  so,  while  attending  diligently  to  his 
other  studies,  Webster  found  time  to  trace  the  current  of 
these  events  in  the  political  world.  At  that  time  the  young 
Corsican  had  just  conquered  Italy.  A  year  or  two  later, 
while  Webster  was  delivering  his  Fourth  of  July  oration 
to  his  fellow-students  at  Dartmouth,  Napoleon  was  fighting 
successfully  his  battles  of  the  Pyramids  and  the  Nile.  The 
imagery  of  these  strange  and  startling  facts  was  not  lost 
on  him,  but  found  a  safe  resting-place  in  his  mind  for  future 
use. 

His  course  at  Dartmouth  was  in  every  way  clear  and 
creditable ;  he  secured  the  respect  and  love  of  all,  and 
maintained  it  to  the  close.  Graduating  with  honor  in  1801, 
the  physical,  moral  and  intellectual  status  of  the  man, 
thereafter,  through  much  toil  and  labor,  developed  with  that 
of  his  country, — grew  with  its  growth,  and  strengthened 
with  its  strength.  Even  at  this  early  day  Webster  seemed 
a  part  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  His  mind,  like  the 
rocky  hills  among  which  he  was  born,  was  metamorphic, 
yet  strongly  primitive, — fused  by  the  broadest  and  most 
natural  principles,  yet  recombined  and  cemented  in  great 
strength  and  harmony.  Witness  his  orations  at  eighteen  and 
twenty, — patterns  of  growing  eloquence  and  of  remarkable 
strength  and  skill.  The  former,  delivered  at  Dartmouth, 
drew  tears  from  the  veterans,  as  well  as  many  another's  eyes. 
The  latter,  delivered  at  Fryeburg,  Me.,  embraced  all  the 
principles  for  governing  a  republic  ;  and  even  at  the  present 
day,  for  patriotic  fervor,  moral  sublimity,  national  unity  of 
thought,  and  grandeur  of  republican  ideas,  it  is  well-nigh  un- 
surpassed. 

After  teaching  two  quarters  at  the  academy  of  Fryeburg, 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  65 

and  finishing  his  course  of  law,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1805.  He  practised  two  years  at  Boscawen,  declining  the 
remunerative  office  of  clerk  to  a  county  court,  and  subse- 
quently removed  to  Portsmouth,  where  he  worked  success- 
fully, though  pitted  against  some  of  the  best  legal  talent 
and  experience  in  the  county. 

In  looking  back  now,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  this  period  of 
competition,  extending  over  nearly  ten  years,   produced  a 
marked  degree  of  influence  on  the  development  of  his  future 
ability  and  character  as  a  jurist;   too  marked  an  influence, 
in  fact,  to  be  passed  over  here  in  silence.     The  names  of 
.Mason,   Smith,   Story  and  Parsons  abundantly  attest  this, 
and  are  sufficient   of  themselves    to  honor  any  rival  who 
measured  lances    with   them.      Mr.  Webster    himself  bore 
testimony  to  this  influence  when  presenting  the  resolutions 
of  the  Suffolk  bar  upon  Mr.  Mason's  death.     He  said,  "I  will 
not  say  of  the  advantages  which  I  have  deriyed  from  his 
intercourse  and  conversation,  all  that  Mr.  Fox  said  of  Ed- 
mund Burke  ;  but  I  am  bound  to  say  that,  of  my  own  pro- 
fessional discipline  and  attainments,  whatever  they  may  be, 
I  owe  much  to  that  close  attention  to  the  discharge  of  my 
duties  which  I  was  compelled  to  pay,  for  nine  successive 
years  from  day  to  day,  by  Mr.  Mason's  efforts  and  argu- 
ments at  the  same  bar.    I  must  have  been  unintelligent  indeed 
not  to  have  learned  something  from  the  constant  displays 
of  that  power  which  I  had  so  much  occasion  to  see  and 
feel."      Of    Judge    Story's    influence,    Kufus    Choate   says, 
"Such  was  his  affluence  of  knowledge,  such  his   stimulant 
enthusiasm,  he  was  burning  with  so  incredible  a  passion  for 
learning  and  fame,  that  his  influence  over  young  Webster 
was  instant,  and  it  was  great  and  permanent."     It  was  in 
this  arena,  wrestling  day  by  day  with  these  gladiators  of 
forensic  dispute,  that  Webster  grew  and  was  strengthened 
and  became  mighty  and  all-powerful  at  the  American  bar. 


66  THE    WEBSTEB   CENTENNIAL. 

During  this  decade  of  his  life,  occurred  two  events  which 
in  a  measure  helped  to  shape  and  fashion  his  future  career. 
The  first  was  his  marriage  to  Grace  Fletcher,  daughter  of 
Rev.  Mr.  Fletcher,  of  Hopkinton.  It  was  a  case  of  love  at' 
first  sight.  He  first  saw  her  when  on  horseback,  riding  up 
to  the  church  door. 

Their  courtship,  a  friend  assured  me,  was  a  most  unique 
and  happy  one.  When  one  day  engaged  with  her  in  trying 
to  unravel  a  tangled  skein  of  silk,  he  suddenly  said,  "  Grace, 
can  vou  tie  a  love-knot  that  will  not  untie  during  this  life?" 
"I  know  not,"  she  replied,  "but  I  am  willing  to  try,  Daniel." 
That  love-knot  is  still  in  existence,  and  I  treasure  it  among 
the  choicest  of  my  souvenirs  of  Webster.  They  were  mar- 
ried in  1808,  and  their  domestic  life  was  ever  after  the  most 
happy  until  her  death  in  1828.*  The  second  event  I  refer  to 
was  his  election  to  Congress  from  the  State  of  Xew  Hampshire 
in  1813.  Remember,  this  was  when  the  second  war  with'  Eng- 
land had  already  begun — when  Burke,  Pitt  and  Fox,  the 
great  statesmen  of  the  old  world,  were  dead,  and  Washing- 
ton, Franklin  and  Hamilton  of  the  new  world  had  gone  to 
their  rest.  It  was  when  the  influence  of  these  political 
giants  was  somewhat  subsiding,  that  Webster,  the  child 
of  the  wilderness,  like  a  moral  Achilles,  first  stepped  into 
the  nation's  forum  where  his  crowning  triumphs  were  to  be 
won.  Napoleon,  too,  had  superseded  the  Republic  of 
France.  He  had  passed  from  General  to  Consul,  and  from 
Consul  to  Emperor,  when  Webster,  taking  his  seat  in 
the  house  of  Congress,  May,  1813,  on  the  10th  of  June 
following  made  his  maiden  speech  concerning  the  famous 
Berlin  and  Milan  decrees.  He  was  placed  upon  the  Com- 
mittee of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  his  services  there,  his  mastery 
of  the  questions   of  currency  and  finance,   as  well  as   his 

*In  1829,  Mr.  Webster  married  Miss  Caroline  Leroy,  who  survived  him 
thirty  years.    See  note  at  end  of  address. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  67 

subsequent  speeches  on  the  increase  of  the  navy  and  the 
repeal  of  the  embargo  and  orders  in  council,  gave  him  a 
wide  influence,  and  raised  him  to  the  first  rank  of  debaters. 
Even  at  this  epoch,  Mr.  Lowndes  said  of  him,  "  The  North  has 
not  his  equal,  nor  the  South  his  superior."  Remark  that  all 
this  was  done  at  the  age  of  thirty-one,  a  period  of  years 
when  Burke  was  still  a  neophyte  in  politics,  and  had  made 
an  unsuccessful  attempt  at  the  bar.  I  would  also  call  your 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  House  at  this  time  contained 
many  talented  men.  There  were  Clay  and  Calhoun,  Lowndes, 
Pickering,  Gaston  and  Forsyth  in  the  first  rank ;  Marion, 
Berien,  J.  W.  Taylor,  Oakley,  Gunnison,  W.  R.  King, 
Grundy,  Kent  of  Maryland,  Ingersoll  of  Pennsylvania, 
Pitkin  of  Connecticut,  and  Randolph  of  Virginia,  and  many 
others  of  scarcely  less  note  in  the  second.  But  among  them 
all  he  v ras  facile princeps ;  and,  to  my  mind,  there  were  only 
two,  Clay  and  Calhoun,  who,  in  their  respective  specialties, 
approached  or  could  in  any  way  bear  comparison  with 
Webster. 

Clay  was  live  years  older  than  Webster,  and  had  but 
little  of  his  training  and  classical  knowledge.  Yet  he  knew 
more  of  the  outside  world,  had  had  a  larger  experience  in 
State  legislation,  and  was  twice  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate  before  meeting  Webster  in  the  halls  of  Congress. 

The  personal  associations  of  Clay  in  early  life,  owing  to 
the  newly  settled  district  in  the  West  in  which  he  lived,  were 
not,  like  those  of  Webster's,  surrounded  or  strongly  con- 
trolled by  religious  convictions  and  a  high  political  moral 
force,  and  he  was  not  personally  so  generous.  And  I  say  this, 
not  to  rate  Henry  Clay's  advance  upon  his  opportunities  the 
less,  but  to  honor  and  appreciate  those  of  Webster  the  more. 
All  the  world  knows  that  Webster,  out  of  courtesy,  often 
deferred  to  Clay  in  polities,  and  gave  him  precedence  with 
the  people  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  even  when  his 


6S  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

own  chances  for  the  office  were  most  likely  to  succeed. 
Had  Clay  shown  an  equal  magnanimity  of  soul  towards 
Webster's  elevation,  I  doubt  not  that  both  of  these  great 
men  would  have  become  Presidents  in  time,  and  then  the 
destiny  of  the  world  might  have  felt  the  result.  Perhaps  I 
may  be  pardoned  for  alluding  here  in  this  connection  to 
a  calumny  which  has  of  late  obtained  somewhat  widely 
among  us.  They  say  that  Webster,  being  smitten  with  the 
Presidential  fever,  stooped  to  barter  for  votes,  and,  failing 
to  realize  his  hopes,  died  of  a  broken  heart.  But  let  the 
dead  man  have  a  hearing.  I  knew  Webster  from  my  boy- 
hood up ;  and  I,  with  thousands  of  others  now  living,  can 
say  that  his  whole  life  and  habit  was  a  contradiction  to  this, 
and  therefore  would  of  itself  pronounce  this  calumny  false  — 
utterly  and  profoundly  false.  That  Daniel  W^ebster  wanted 
to  be  President  of  the  United  States,  I  concede.  But  that 
was  a  laudable  ambition.  That  Webster  so  coveted  the  office 
of  President  that  he  could  and  did  sacrifice  his  honor  in  pursuit 
of  it,  I  most  emphatically  deny ;  and  his  own  oft-repeated 
words  bear  me  out  in  the  contradiction.  AVebster's  nature  and 
mind  were  too  great  for  that,  his  morality  too  strong,  and  his 
sense  of  honor  and  self-respect  too  high  and  unswerving  ;  such 
a  debasement  was  morally  impossible.  Webster  may  indeed 
have  died  a  disappointed  man.  But,  mark  you  well,  it  was 
a  disappointment  born  of  the  falsity  of  friends, — a  disap- 
pointment born  of  the  treachery  of  party  leaders, — a  dis- 
appointment that  drove  him  to  look  to  young  men  and  the 
people  at  large  for  sympathy,  because  they  alone,  un warped 
by  the  prejudices  of  party,  could  judge  him  with  fairness 
and  impartiality.  This  was  his  only  disappointment.  He 
believed  to  his  dying  day  that  if  the  people  had  had  their  own 
way,  unbiased  by  selfish  and  jealous  party  leaders,  he  would 
have  been  elected  President  of  the  United  States  ;  and  that 
impression  remains  in  the  minds   of  his  old  friends  to-day. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  69 

Webster  had  his  faults,  indeed,  but  an  immodest  or  indeli- 
cate aspiration  to  the  Presidency  assuredly  was  not  one  of 
them.  Mr.  Clay's  ambition  to  become  President  was  much 
stronger  than  Webster's,  and  he  was  determined  to  suc- 
ceed or  prevent  Mr.  Webster  from  ever  receiving  the  nomi- 
nation of  his  party.  With  Clay,  the  law  of  expediency  was 
seemingly  the  more  natural  one  ;  and  with  great  fertility  of 
mind,  and  often  to  successful  purpose,  though  he  instituted 
compromises,  it  must  be  said  they  often  lacked  the  founda- 
tion of  great  natural  principle.  Webster,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  slow  to  yield  a  principle  ;  he  stood  out  strong  for  the 
right,  and  he  resented  an  infringement  of  the  Constitution 
and  laws  as  he  would  a  personal  injury.  Clay  was  eloquent 
indeed,  but  without  that  intellectually  sublime  foundation  of 
an  orator  in  his  nature  possessed  by  Webster.  He  did  not 
reason  as  well  as  Webster,  and  his  influence,  in  consequence, 
was  more  electric  than  logical  upon  the  people. 

The  only  man  who  could  compare  with  Webster  in  logical 
acumen,  and  this  only  from  his  own  standpoint,  was  John  C. 
Calhoun,  whose  character  and  ability,  to  my  knowledge,  he 
always  very  highly  respected. 

If  I  may  be  allowed  an  illustration  from  physics,  I  would 
say  that  while  Clay's  brain  battery,  orally  illustrated,  was 
purely  electric  with  metaphysical  force,  Calhoun's  was  mag- 
netic, and  was  nearly  always  directed  to  one  central  point. 
Webster's  was  largely  a  combination  of  both,  with  a  great 
natural  and  broad  flow  of  illustration,  eloquent  as  well  as 
logical,  and  as  convincing  in  manner.  Clay  lighted  up, 
lifted  and  stirred  whatever  he  touched  and  handled,  making 
a  strong  impression  at  the  time,  but  leaving  less  for  future 
thought.  Calhoun's  was  a  sharp,  keen,  penetrating  intel- 
lect, yet  shorn  of  the  strength  it  might  otherwise  have  pos- 
sessed, because  of  the  narrow  scope  of  its  very  intensity, 
an  intensity  which  exposed  him  to  the  blighting  effects  of 


70  THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

•  sectional  prejudice  or  narrow-mindedness.  Nullification, 
slavery  and  South  Carolina  were  Calhoun's  idols  ;  beyond 
them  the  world  seemed  to  him  secondary.  Webster,  on  the 
contrary,  while  possessed  of  an  equal  amount  of  penetration 
and  sagacity,  was  broader  in  his  sympathies  and  larger  in  his 
views,  and  these  he  always  expressed  with  vigor  and  strength. 
Webster  indeed  loved  Massachusetts,  but  he  loved  South 
Carolina  and  the  other  States  too  with  an  almost  equal  love, 
as  his  letters  and  speeches  and  all  his  public  acts  show. 
Furthermore,  Calhoun  was  no  lawyer,  nor  did  he  ever  pre- 
tend to  be.  In  this  respect  Webster  outstripped  both  him 
and  Clay,  and  was,  to  the  mind  of  most  of  his  legal  friends, 
the  greatest  lawgiver  the  country  has  ever  produced.  As 
an  orator,  Calhoun  was  pungent  and  grasping,  and  this  pecu- 
liarity of  force  some  call  great,  but  Webster  was  even  greater 
in  all  these  phases  of  oratory.  The  Plymouth  Rock  speech, 
his  Bunker  Hill  discourse,  and  his  crushing  reply  to  Hayne, 
have  no  equal  in  the  field  of  American  oratory.  But  it  was 
in  his  sterling  integrity,  in  his  courteousness,  in  the  sin- 
cerity of  his  belief  in  the  righteousness  of  his  cause, — a 
sincerity  that  lifted  him  above  all  suspicion  of  personal 
treachery  to  the  Union, — it  was  in  these,  I  say,  that  John 
C.  Calhoun  resembled  Webster  ;  and,  recognizing  this  fact, 
Webster  always  respected  him,  as  I  have  said,  more  than 
any  of  his  peers. 

Having  thus  shown  how  Webster  stood  in  comparison  with 
his  giant  associates,  reaching  out  to  a  future  full  of  promise 
and  hope,  let  us  resume  now  the  thread  of  his  life  and  subse- 
quent career  before  the  world. 

Webster  had  now  reached  the  age  of  forty  years  ;  and, 
though  he  had  given  promise  of,  he  had  not  yet  fully  realized, 
his  character  of  greatness.  From  this  epoch,  however,  I  can 
truly  say  that  his  career  as  a  jurist  was  positively  assured. 
Side  by  side  with  his  professional  character  grewhis  reputation 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL  71 

as  an  orator  and  his  reputation  as  a  statesman,  until  they  too 
became  firmly  fixed  and  established.     Onward  and  upward 
he  went  in  his  triple  career  of  glory  to  the  highest  niche  in 
the  gallery  of  his  country's  fame.     Bear  with  me,  then,  if, 
glancing  rapidly  over  this  period  of  his  life,  I  touch  lightly 
on  its  leading  events  and  his  greatest  efforts.     And  first,  let 
me  speak  of  the  growth  of  his  professional  reputation,  or  the 
formation  of  his  character  and  power  as  a  lawyer.     Time, 
indeed,  will  not  allow  me  here  to  dwell  at  length  upon  this 
side  of  his  career.     But  some  salient  facts  there  are  which 
demand  recognition  and  cannot  be  passed  over  in  silence. 
Recall,  for  instance,  the  case  of  Gibbons  and  Ogden  in  1824, 
which  settled  an  important  principle  in  navigation,  and  for 
which  Chief  Justice  Wayne,  a  quarter  of  a  century  later, 
paid  Webster  the  glowing  tribute  of  having  fixed  the  constitu- 
tionality of  the  whole  subject      Recall  the  case  of  Ogden  and 
Saunders  in  1827,  the  case  of  the  Proprietors  of  the  Charles 
River  Bridge  in  1836,  the  Alabama  Bank  in  1889,  the  Rhode 
Island  Constitution   in  1840,  and  the   Girard  Will   case   in 
1844.     All  this  recalls  to  mind  Mr.  Webster's  practice  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  his  unsurpassed 
sagacity    in    developing    constitutional    law.     These    efforts 
raised  him  to  a  leadership  at  the  American  bar ;   "  enabled 
him,"  says  Mr.  Everett,  "to  establish  a  new  school  of  consti- 
tutional law,  and  led  him  to  distinguish  himself  before  all  his 
contemporaries  in  this  branch  of  his  profession."     But  his 
greatest  triumph  (and  I  must  not  forget  it)  was  in  the  fam- 
ous Dartmouth  College  case,  at  Washington.     Who  has  not 
heard  of  this  brilliant  trial  in  which  he  appeared  as  junior 
counsel  and    comparatively  unknown,  to  win    in    one   plea- 
a  national  reputation?      "In  it,"  says  Mr.  Ticknor,   "the 
logic    and    law  were  rendered  irresistible.     He  opened  his 
case,  as  he  always  does,  with  perfect  simplicity  in  the  gen- 
eral  statement  of  facts  :   and  then   went  on  to   unfold  the 


72  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

topics  of  his  argument  in  a  lucid  order  whicn  made  each 
position  sustain  every  other.  But  as  he  advanced,  his  heart 
warmed  to  the  subject  and  occasion.  Thoughts  and  feelings 
that  had  grown  old  with  his  best  affections  rose  unbidden  to 
his  lips.  He  remembered  that  the  institution  he  was  defend- 
ing was  the  one  where  his  youth  had  been  nurtured  ;  and  the 
moral  tenderness  and  beauty  this  gave  to  the  grandeur  of  his 
thoughts,  the  sort  of  religious  sensibility  it  imparted  to  his 
urgent  appeals  and  demands  for  the  stern  fulfilment  of  what 
law  and  justice  required,  wrought  up  the  whole  audience  to 
an  extraordinary  state  of  excitement.  Many  betrayed  strong 
agitation,  and  many  were  dissolved  in  tears.  When  he  ceased 
to  speak  there  was  a  perceptible  interval  before  any  one  was 
willing  to  break  the  silence  ;  and,  when  that  vast  crowd  sep- 
arated, no  one  person  of  the  whole  number  doubted  that  the 
man  who  had  that  day  so  moved,  astonished  and  controlled 
them  had  vindicated  for  himself  a  place  at  the  side  of  the  first 
jurist  of  the  country."  Such  is  the  tribute  paid  him  by  one 
fully  competent  to  measure  the  value  of  such  a  speech.  And 
to  her  credit  be  it  said,  Dartmouth  has  never  been  wanting 
either  in  gratitude  or  affection  for  her  eloquent  defender. 
Her  sons  have  always  delighted  to  honor  the  memory  of 
Webster.  And  from  Maine  to  Texas  they  have  sounded  the 
key-note  to  this  Centennial  anniversary,  and  risen  as  one  man 
to  vindicate  his  honor  and  do  homage  to  his  greatness.  For 
my  own  part,  confessedly  partial,  I  doubt  whether  any  after 
effort  of  his  life  has  ever  created  for  him  so  much  genuine 
admiration,  affection  and  real  gratitude  as  this.  I  must  con- 
fess, however,  that  in  reading  this  speech  I  find  it  difficult 
to  distinguish  between  the  greatness  of  the  advocate  and  the 
greatness  of  the  orator. 

But,  leaving  him  as  a  lawyer  to  the  admiration  of  lawyers 
and  law  students,  I  turn  me  now  to  Webster  as  an  orator 
and  in  his  rounded  and  full  development  as  a  statesman. 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  73 

December  22,  1820,  was  the  two-hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  rock.  On  this 
shore,  but  a  few  miles  from  this  very  spot,  from  whose  hilltops 
the  monuments  to  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  may  be  seen,  and  a 
little  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  Daniel  Webster  at  the  early 
age  of  thirty-eight  delivered  an  oration  —  and  let  me  say  it, 
an  immortal  oration  —  that  has  not  only  vindicated  his  title 
to  greatness  in  oratory,  but  has  likewise  been  so  crystallized 
into  the  national  life  of  this  country  that  its  passages 
have  become  as  household  words  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land.  So  true  it  is  that  the  work  of 
genius,  in  whatever  way  or  at  whatever  time  it  takes  ex- 
pression finds  a  responsive  echo  deep  down  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people  of  all  times,  in  the  hearts  of  old  and  young 
alike.  What  school-boy  has  not  heard  of  the  famous  Ply- 
mouth Rock  speech?  —  that  speech  of  which  John  Adams 
said,  "It  is  the  effort  of  a  great  mind  richly  stored  with 
every  species  of  information.  If  there  be  an  American 
who  can  read  it  without  tears,  I  am  not  that  American. 
It  enters  more  perfectly  into  the  genuine  spirit  of  New  Eng- 
land than  any  production  I  ever  read.  The  observation  on 
the  Greeks  and  Romans  ;  on  colonization  in  general ;  on  the 
West '  India  islands ;  on  the  past,  present  and  future  in 
America,  and  on  the  slave  trade,  are  sagacious,  profound  and 
'affecting  in  a  hii>*h  decree.  Mr.  Burke  is  no  longer  entitled 
to  the  praise,  the  most  consummate  orator  of  modern  times. 
This  oration  will  be  read  five  hundred  years  hence  with  as 
much  rapture  as  it  was  heard.  It  ought  to  be  read  at  the 
end  of  every  century,  and,  indeed,  at  the  end  of  every  year, 
for  ever  and  ever."  And  might  he  not  have  added,  had  he 
lived  to  our  day,  there  is  no  further  need  for  an  expression 
of  Webster's  opinion  on  the  evils  of  slavery  than  those 
uttered  at  Plymouth  rock  ?     His  condemnation  of  the  hor- 


74  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

rors  and  influences  of  slavery,  uttered  in  fiery  lines,  was  like 
the  scorching  blast  from  a  smelting  furnace. 

Slavery  !  Now  I  touch  upon  a  vital  question.  Webster's 
opinions  upon  slavery!  What  were  they?  his  critics,  his 
earnest,  severe  critics,  sarcastically  ask.  And  immediately 
they  lash  themselves  with  rage  into  a  blind  fury,  and  call  the 
dead  statesman  a  traitor.  Traitor?  He  whose  whole  life 
was  one  continual  combat  with  slavery,  a  traitor?  wlio,  in 
sentiment  and  principle,  was  as  much  an  anti-slavery  man  or 
constitutional  abolitionist  as  Giddings,  Garrison  or  Sumner. 
Let  the  truth  be  told  !  The  great  question  with  Webster 
was  the  means  of  action.  Who  can  deny  to-day  that  the 
extremists  of  the  South  were  as  logical  in  their  claims  for  the 
maintenance  of  slavery  as  were  the  abolitionists  of  the  North 
for  its  unconditional  overthrow?  Webster  stood  alone,  but 
Webster  was  consistent.  He  claimed  to  maintain  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  laws  of  the  land  in  good  faith,  and  he  acted 
up  to  his  belief.  He  had  done  all  he  could  —  had  succeeded 
in  helping  to  abolish  the  slave  trade,  opposed  the  extension 
of  slavery,  and  finally,  had  offered  to  buy  and  free  the  slaves 
at  the  expense  of  the  common  country.  He  did  not  know 
how  to  violate  the  Constitution  with  impunity  himself,  and 
his  whole  life  was  ensrao-ed  in  preventing  others  from*  doins: 
so.  He  knew  that,  both  under  the  original  Constitution  and 
the  laws,  slavery  existed  ;  that  there  was  a  fugitive-slave* 
law  as  old  as  both  of  the  Constitutions,  under  which  the  slave- 
holder of  the  South  had  the  right,  by  solemn  compact,  to 
reclaim  a  fugitive  slave  ;  and  he  well  knew  that  this  system 
never  could  be  broken  except  by  force  of  arms.  Webster 
was  not  ready  for  this,  because  he  was  always  by  nature 
more  of  a  constitutionalist  than  a  revolutionist,  and  his  love 
of  law  and  order,  both  human  and  divine,  seemed  to  be  a 
pre-natal  impress  upon  his  soul.  He  knew,  and  was  free  to 
admit,  that  the  slaveocracy  had  the  legal  right  to  the  pound 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL  75 

of  flesh,  because  it  was  in  the  bond.  Mark  it  well  —  the  right 
was  in  the  bond  !  But  the  earnest  labor  of  his  life  was  to 
see  that  they  did  not  draw  a  drop  of  blood  in  payment  of 
that  bond.  For  this  he  was  reviled  and  maltreated  both  in 
the  North  and  South.  He  dreaded  (and  the  result  has 
proved  the  divinity  of  his  prescience)  that  disunion  would 
be  forcibly  attempted  by  the  South,  and  that  the  country, 
plunged  in  all  the  horrors  of  the  civil  war,  would  be  deluged 
with  the  blood  of  its  citizens.  Who  can  now  say  that  he 
was  not  right?  Who,  standing  here  to-day  and  counting 
the  fearful  cost  of  life  and  treasure,  would  assume  the  respon- 
sibility of  taking  from  God's  hands  the  power  of  dealing  out 
retribution  ?  And  yet  this  was  done  by  many  calling  them- 
selves Christians  in  both  North  and  South.  Was  not  this 
spirit  calling  for  the  enactment  of  the  laws  of  God  more  of  the 
Old  than  the  New  Testament  ?  Did  it  not  call  bitterly  for 
"  an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  "  ?  Was  not  the 
passion  attending  it  more  the  venom  of  the  viper  than  the 
charity  of  the  gleaner  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives  ?  Was  it 
not  the  religion  that  burned  martyrs  at  the  stake  rather  than 
that  which  sat  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ? 

This,  distinguished  friends,  is  the  true  statement  of  Web- 
ster's position  on  the  burning  question  of  slavery.  In  all 
justice  to  him,  and  in  the  light  of  what  has  since  occurred, 
it  must  be  said  of  him  that  the  slave  never  had  a  truer 
friend,  nor  the  country  a  more  staunch  and  devoted  adher- 
ent. Even  his  speech  on  the  7th  of  March,  1850  (and  I  may 
with  propriety  refer  to  that  here)  — that  speech  for  which  he 
was  so  cruelly  and  so  unjustly  criticised  —  even  that  speech, 
I  say,  was  nothing  more  than  a  reproduction  in  detail  of  the 
acts  and  opinions  of  his  life.  For  forty  years  he  had  fought 
nobly  for  the  Union,  and  when  the  whole  fabric  seemed 
threatened  with  destruction,  he  gathered  his  mantle  about 
him,  and,  forgetting  his  own  interest,  set  forth  boldly  for  the 


76  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

contest.  Conscious  of  his  own  sincerity  of  service  to  the 
country,  and  of  his  unbiased  and  unselfish  demands  upon  her 
forbearance  in  hearing  and  helping  him  maintain  the  truth, 
he  opened  his  whole  heart  and  soul.  He  spoke  as  a  defender 
of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  He  flattered  neither  side 
upon  the  question  at  issue,  but,  being  just  to  both,  he  laid 
bare  the  truth  to  all.  Strong  and  temperate  was  his  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  compromise,  but  the  minds  of  men  were  in 
no  mood  for  such  counsel.  Unmindful  of  the  past,  and  with 
an  ingratitude  as  base  as  it  was  undeserved,  they  dared  to 
call  his  patriotism  in  question  and  treat  him  with  public 
scorn.  Did  the  giant  quail  before  their  pigmy  wrath  ?  He 
stood  alone,  indeed,  to  breast  the  storm  of  abuse  they  hurled 
upon  him,  but  he  stood  calm,  fearless  and  undaunted. 

"As  some  tall  cliff  that  lifts  its  awful  form. 
Swells  from  the  vale  and  midway  leaves  the  storm, 
Though  round  its  breast  the  rolling  clouds  are  spread, 
Eternal  sunshine  settles  on  its  head."' 

He  was  determined  to  vindicate  himself  before  the  people 
of  Massachusetts,  and  he  did  it.  He  came  down  to  Faneuil 
Hall  to  meet  his  constituents  face  to  face.  He  stood  in  the 
public  squares  of  Boston  and  said,  "that  he  had  hoped  for 
their  approval,  but  however  that  might  be,  he  would  perse- 
vere regardless  of  all  personal  consequences.  He  would  say 
nothing  to  foster  unkind  passions  between  North  and  South. 
The  simple  question  was  whether  Massachusetts,  renowned 
for  her  intelligent  character,  conspicuous  before  the  world, 
a  leading  State  in  the  Union,  would  conquer  her  local  preju- 
dices, would  shrink  from  the  fair,  reasonable  and  moderate 
performance  (and  no  more  is  asked)  of  her  sworn  obliga- 
tions? Meanwhile,"  he  bravely  added,  "I  shall  take  no  step 
backward,  but  shall  continue  to  labor  for  peace,  harmony 
and  concord." 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  77 

He  wrote  the  cabinet's  circular,  which  we  shall  hear  read 
to-day,  setting  forth  in  clear  and  forcible  language  the  prin- 
ciples of  his  defence,  without  alluding  directly  to  the  speech 
itself.  And  in  a  letter  to  his  constituents  dated  March 
21,  1851,  he  penned  these  noble  words:  "Since  the  com- 
mencement of  last  March  I  have  done  something  and  haz- 
arded much  to  uphold  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
and  to  maintain  interests  of  the  most  vital  importance  to 
the  citizens  of  Boston.  And  I  shall  do  more  and  hazard 
more  whenever,  in  my  judgment,  it  becomes  necessary  that 
more  be  done  or  more  be  hazarded.  I  shall  perform  with 
unflinching  perseverance,  and  to  the  end,  my  duty  to  my 
whole  country ;  nor  do  I  in  the  slightest  degree  fear  the 
result.  Folly  and  fanaticism  may  have  their  hour.  They 
may  not  only  affect  the  minds  of  individuals,  but  they  may 
also  seize  on  public  bodies  of  greater  or  less  dignity.  But 
their  reign  is  without  doubt  destined  to  be  short  even  where, 
for  the  moment,  it  seems  most  triumphant.  We  of  Massa- 
chusetts are  not  doomed  to  a  course  of  political  conduct  such 
as  would  reproach  our  ancestors,  destroy  our  own  prosperity, 
and  expose  us  to  the  derision  of  the  civilized  world.  No 
such  future  is  before  us.     Far  otherwise. 

"Patriotism,  the  union  of  good  men,  fidelity,  which  has 
hitherto  enabled  the  people  of  this  State  to  discern  and  ap- 
preciate their  own  history  and  character,  will  bring  them 
back  to  their  accustomed  feelings  of  love  of  country,  and  of 
respect  and  veneration  for  its  institutions  !  " 

Could  any  attempt  at  vindication  of  character  be  imagined 
more  noble  than  this  ?  But  alas  for  the  times  !  and  alas  for  the 
political  morals  !  are  not  some  of  the  specimens  of  American 
statesmanship  nowadays  shorn  of  their  glory  ?  Is  the  day  of 
honest,  manly,  straightforward  defence  of  public  action  over? 
And  instead,  are  we  to  have  substituted  disgusting  pleas  for 


78  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

mercy,   excuses  and  apologies  for   deliberate  wrong-doing, 
from  our  politicians  and  statesmen  ? 

Notwithstanding  the  outcry  raised  against  this  speech, 
whether  by  political  or  personal  enemies,  for  myself  I  can 
find  no  point  in  the  address  which  may  be  construed  as  in- 
consistent with  the  action  of  Webster's  whole  life,  except  it 
be  the  possible  admission  of  New  Mexico  as  a  State  without 
restriction  ;  and  be  it  remembered  that  he  was  not  in  the 
Senate  when  that  bill  passed.  This  limit,  Webster  said,  was 
needless,  as  Providence  itself  had  provided  the  remedy,  in 
forever  prohibiting  slavery  there.  He  afterwards  stated  that 
he  should  have  proposed  an  amendment  to  the  bill  had  he 
been  in  the  Senate  at  the  time  of  its  passage.  But 
however  I  may  question  his  opinion  upon  this  point,  I 
shall  none  the  less  hold  to  my  original  proposition,  that 
Daniel  Webster's  motives  were  always  pure  and  patriotic ; 
that  he  did  an  unselfish  act  when  he  made  this  speech  ;  and 
that  this  speech  itself  will  live  and  be  admired  by  future 
generations  lomr  after  those  who  declaim  so  bitterlv  against 
it  now  will  be  forgotten. 

So  much  for  the  slavery  question  and  his  7th  of  March 
speech. 

I  have  already  said  that  Webster  in  his  Plymouth  Rock 
discourse  gave  abundant  evidence  of  consummate  ability  as 
an  orator.  His  oration  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of 
Bunker  Hill  monument,  June  17,  1825,  likewise  proved  him 
to  be,  without  question,  an  anniversary  orator  of  the  first 
order.  But  the  eulogy  of  Adams  and  Jefferson  in  1826, 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
as  well  as  the  second  Bunker  Hill  discourse  in  1843,  con- 
firmed this  fact,  and  settled  it  forever  beyond  the  shadow  of 
a  doubt. 

Fain  would  I  dwell  with  you  upon  these  masterpieces  of 
human  eloquence,  but  that  is  now  impossible.     Time  will 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  79 

not  allow  it ;  and,  however  reluctantly,  we  must  leave  them 
for  the  present  to  resume  the  thread  of  his  career  in  public 
life  as  a  statesman.  It  was  at  the  close  of  the  August  ses- 
sion  in  1816  that  Mr.  Webster  removed  to  Boston  ;  and  his 
subsequent  services  to  Massachusetts,  beginning  with  the 
convention  of  1820  for  the  revision  of  the  Constitution,  were 
of  the  highest  order.  After  six  years'  absence  he  was  again 
elected  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  where  he  took  his 
seat  December,  1823.  From  this  tiino  to  1852,  the  year  of 
his  death,  a  period  of  nearly  thirty  years,  he  served  continu- 
ously either  as  Representative  or  Senator  from  Massachusetts, 
and  also  held  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State  under  several 
different  administrations  with  much  distinction  to  himself. 
Taking  this  epoch  of  his  life  all  in  all,  I  find  it  summed  up 
and  characterized  in  the  discussion  of  three  leading  ques- 
tions which  absorbed  his  attention  above  all  others- — ques- 
tions involving  mighty  interests  even  to  the  very  existence 
of  this  our  country,  and  marking  his  transcendent  ability  and 
character  as  a  statesman  —  slavery,  the  protective  tariff,  and 
the  doctrine  of  nullification.  Of  the  first-named  subject, 
and  Webster's  attitude  upon  it,  I  have  already  spoken  suffi- 
ciently at  length  to  dismiss  the  matter  here  without  much 
further  comment.  But,  in  reiterating  my  former  statement 
regarding  the  consistency  of  Webster's  actions  on  slavery,  I 
will  only  refer,  in  passing,  to  the  comments  of  Thomas  H. 
Benton  on  Webster's  words  in  the  Missouri  controversy. 
"This,"  writes  Benton,  "is  what  Mr.  Webster  said  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  and  although  it  was  in  reply  to  an  invec- 
tive of  my  own,  I  made  no  answer  impugning  its  correct- 
ness, and  must  add  that  I  never  saw  anything  in  Mr.  Web- 
ster inconsistent  with  what  he  then  said." 
.  Let  this  expression  of  opinion,  from  a  bitter  opponent 
who  had  always  watched  Webster  with  a  critical  and  jealous 


80  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL 

eye,  serve  at  least  to  shame,  if  it  does  not  silence,  the  innu- 
endoes and  slurs  of  those  who  will  not  believe. 

As  regards  the  second  question,  the  protective  tariff, 
Webster  always  sought  in  this,  as  in  all  other  questions, 
to  simplify  and  reduce  the  problem  to  its  original  principles. 
His  sole  aim  and  purpose  was  to  promote  foreign  commerce' 
and  develop  domestic  industries  hand  in  hand  together. 
Convinced  that  the  real  prosperity  of  this  country  depended 
equally  upon  the  flourishing  of  its  internal  and  external  in- 
terests, he  always  sought  to  adjust  them  nicely  and  balance 
them  together.  It  was  the  prosperity  of  the  whole  country, 
and  not  that  of  any  particular  section,  that  he  constantly 
worked  for.  On  such  a  broad  principle,  it  was  but  natural 
then  that  he  should  fail  to  please  all  parties  concerned.  But 
as  regards  his  courage,  his  consistency,  his  patriotism  and  his 
logical  soundness  upon  this  point,  Rufus  Choate  in  his  eulogy 
has  so  vindicated  him  that  no  words  of  mine,  however  forci- 
ble, could  add  a  single  jot  or  tittle  to  its  thoroughness.  I 
therefore  refer  those  who  are  disposed  to  question  the  sincerity 
of  Dauicl  Webster's  statesmanship  on  the  tariff  to  this  mas- 
terly, eloquent  and  definitive  discourse.  Let  them  examine 
it  for  themselves,  let  them  examine  it  for  their  own  enlight- 
meut,  and,  if  they  be  fair  minded  and  open  to  conviction, 
they  must  soon  be  convinced  of  their  error,  and  their  doubts 
will  be  speedily  set  at  rest.  This  far-reaching  principle 
should  serve  as  a  guide  to  the  statesmen  of  our  own  day  in 
the  settlement  of  this  much-vexed  question. 

But  the  greatest  service  by  far  that  Webster  ever  ren- 
dered this  country  was  his  action  upon  the  great  question  of 
nullification  —  "nullification,"  as  Benton  described  it,  "the 
right  claimed  by  a  single  State  to  nullify  at  will  an  act  of 
the  general  government ;  "  or,  as  Madison  more  tersely  puts 
it,  "the  right  to  violate  without  cause  a  faith  solemnly 
pledged."     This  pernicious  doctrine,  fraught  with  so  much 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  81 

ruin  to  our  Republic,  took  its  rise,  its  force  and  its  devel- 
opment, as  every  one  knows,  in  the  State  of  South  Caro- 
lina. John  C.  Calhoun  and  Colonel  Robert  Hayne  were  its 
champions,  with  Webster  intrenched  behind  the  Constitution 
for  an  antagonist.  It  was  in  January,  1830,  a  date  forever 
memorable  in  the  history  of  our  country's  annals,  that  this 
question  was  brought  to  a  final  crisis ;  I  refer,  of  course,  to 
the  famous  debate  on  Foote's  resolution,  wherein  Webster's 
brilliant  reply  to  Hayne  dealt  nullification  its  death-blow. 

"  The  thunderer  stood,  and  chose  from  out  his  store."' 

"  What  were  his  sensations  during  the  delivery  of  this 
splendid  oration,  he  has  himself  narrated  in  answer  to  a 
friend.  *I  felt,'  said  he,  ras  if  everything  I  had  ever  seen, 
or  read,  or  heard,  was  floating  before  me  in  one  grand  pano- 
rama, and  I  had  little  else  to  do  than  to  reach  up  and  cull  a 
thunderbolt  and  hurl  it  at  him.'" 

Of  that  speech  Mr.  Everett  said,  "It  has  been  my  fortune 
to  hear  the  greatest  living  orators  on  both  sides  of  the  water, 
but  I  must  confess  that  I  never  heard  anything  which  so 
nearly  realized  my  conception  of  what  Demosthenes  was 
when  he  delivered  the  oration  for  the  crown.  Webster's 
ponderous  syllables  had  an  energy,  a  vehemence  of  meaning 
in  them  that  fascinated  while  they  startled.  His  thoughts, 
in  their  statuesque  beauty  merely,  would  have  gained  all 
critical  judgment ;  but  he  realized  the  antique  fable,  and 
warmed  the  marble  into  life.  There  was  a  sense  of  power 
in  his  language  —  of  power  withheld  and  suggestive  of  still 
greater  power  —  that  subdued  as  by  a  spell  of  mystery  the 
hearts  of  all.  The  exulting  rush  of  feeling  with  which  he 
went  through  the  peroration  threw  a  glow  over  his  counte- 
nance like  an  inspiration." 

"This  speech,"  continues  Mr.  Everett,  "is  the  most  cele- 
brated speech  ever  delivered  in  Congress.     But  I  would  go 


82  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

further,  and  say,  with  Mr.  David  Harsha,  that  it  has  no 
superior  in  the  annals  of  parliamentary  debate,  that  in  many 
respects  it  was  the  greatest  oratorical  effort  ever  made  by 
any  statesman  in  ancient  or  in  modern  times." 

In  1833  the  doctrine  was  again  pressed,  this  time  by  the 
eminent  talent  of  John  C.  Calhoun.  The  country  was 
threatened  with  all  the  horrors  of  a  civil  war,  when  Webster 
again  stepped  to  the  front  and  averted  the  calamity.  Little 
do  the  people  of  to-day  realize,  separated  as  we  are  from  this 
epoch  by  nearly  half  a  century,  how  much  we  owe  of  the 
blessings  we  now  enjoy  to  the  genius  and  courage  of  Daniel 
Webster.  In  this  contest  with  Calhoun,  this  intellectual 
struggle  of  mind  grappling  with  mind  for  the  supremacy,  in 
which  Webster  was  "  eloquence  wrapped  in  action  like  a  god 
sublime,"  —  in  this  contest,  I  say,  was  settled  a  question 
involving  the  fate  of  untold  millions  of  people.  Those 
who  heard  him,  indeed,  realized  this,  for  at  the  close  of 
Webster's  final  effort  the  audience,  comprising  friend  and 
foe  alike,  rose  spontaneously  to  greet  him  as  defender  of  the 
Constitution.  And  we  to-day,  distinguished  friends,  may 
not  we,  by  the  light  of  what  has  since  occurred,  may  not  we 
also  hail  him  as  the  savior  of  the  country?  Was  it  not  a 
god-like  prescience  that  could  see  and  feel  and  depict  with 
so  much  vehemence  the  horrors  of  secession  brooding  like  a 
cloud  over  the  country  ?  And  did  he  not  stake  his  reputa- 
tion, which  was  dearer  to  him  than  life  itself,  did  he  not 
stake  his  all,  I  say,  in  standing  out  so  boldly  against  public 
opinion  on  this  subject?  And  finally,  did  he  not  succeed  in 
averting  the  danger,  even  though  at  the  fearful  sacrifice  of 
popularity  and  friendship? 

But  Webster's  statesmanship,  you  understand,  did  not 
end  with  vindicating  and  interpreting  the  Constitution  and 
law.  There  were  other  questions  of  almost  equal  impor- 
tance, that   enlisted   his    attention   and   called  for  the  dis- 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  83 

play  of  much  broader  statesmanship.  The  first  was  the  set- 
tlement of  the  currency  and  bank  question.  You  will  re- 
member that  he  was  instrumental  in  passing  the  specie  bill 
of  1817,  which  called  for  the  payment  of  the  public  debt  in 
hard  money ;  and  in  fact,  the  records  of  Congress  will  show 
that  he  always  sought  to  uphold  the  public  credit  by  build- 
ing up  a  sound  currency  upon  a  specie  basis.  From  this, 
infer,  as  we  confidently  may,  what  his  attitude  would  be 
upon  this  question  in  our  own  time,  and  then,  do  not  forget 
his  famous  speech  in  1833  upon  the  bank  controversy,  with 
its  still  more  famous  allusion  to  the  extent  of  the  British 
empire,  that  speech  of  which  Chancellor  Kent  says  in  black 
and  white,  "that  it  surpasses  everything,  in  logic,  in  sim- 
plicity and  beauty  and  energy  of  diction,  in  clearness,  in 
rebuke,  in  sarcasm,  in  patriotic  and  glowing  feeling,  in  just 
and  profound  constitutional  views,  in  critical  severity  and 
matchless  strength  ;  it  is  worth  millions  to  our  liberties. " 

Again,  in  1842,  Mr.  Webster,  as  Secretary  of  State,  ne- 
gotiated a  treaty  with  Lord  Ashburton  that  reflected  the  most 
sublime  credit  upon  his  skill  as  a  diplomatist.  This  treaty  es- 
tablished the  northeastern  boundary  with  England,  which  had 
long  been  a  bone  of  contention  between  the  two  countries. 
It  was  delicate  work,  this,  as  everybody  knows,  and  called 
for  an  incredible  amount  of  tact,  finesse  and  skill.  "It  was," 
says  Harsha,  "one  of  the  most  praiseworthy  acts  of  Mr. 
Webster's  life,  one  for  which  his  name  deserves  to  be  held 
in  lasting  remembrance  by  a  grateful  people." 

And  so  it  was,  fellow-citizens,  with  each  and  every  one 
of  Webster's  public  acts  in  his  capacity  as  a  statesman. 
Whether  he  sought  to  sustain  the  Union  by  consistency  of 
action,  advocating  reason,  sense  and  justice,  as  he  did  on  the 
slavery  question ;  whether  he  aimed  at  promoting  foreign 
commerce  by  free  trade,  or  later  sought  to  develop  home  in- 
dustries by  protection  ;  whether  he  fought  for  the  Constitution 


84  THE   AVEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

or  interpreted  laws,  as  he  did  so  bravely  on  the  question  of 
State  rights  and  nullification  ;  whether  he  upheld  the  public 
credit  by  restoring  a  sound  currency  and  giving  value  to  its 
money,  or  upheld  the  honor  of  his  native  land,  and  vindicated 
its  rights  in  establishing  boundaries,  his  statesmanship  was' 
always  broad,  manly  and  distinguished.  It  was  marked  with 
the  stamp  of  patriotism,  of  genius  and  greatness,  and  well 
deserved  the  confidence  and  gratitude  of  the  whole  American 
people. 

Should  this  great  Republic  ever  totter  and  crumble,  and 
the  dust  of  its  ruins  be  scattered  over  the  earth ;  should  the 
liberties  we  enjoy  be  torn  ruthlessly  from  our  grasp,  grim 
oppression,  tyranny  and  cruel  despotism  grind  us  to  atoms, 
like  other  nations  in  the  past;  should  the  memory  of  this 
fair  land,  smiling  to-day  in  peace  and  plenty,  be  ignomini- 
ously  disgraced,  covered  with  opprobrium  or  blotted  forever 
from  the  human  mind,  — then,  and  not  till  then,  will  the  peo- 
ple forget  the  services  of  Daniel  Webster,  the  greatest  of 
American  statesmen  ! 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  Webster  stood  peerless  and  unap- 
proachable in  his  threefold  capacity  as  lawyer,  as  orator  and 
as  statesman. 

But  "it  is  appointed  for  all  men  once  to  die,"  says  the 
Scripture,  and,  "after  death,  judgment." 

And  so,  while  Webster  stood,  as  a  poet  describes  him, 
with  — 

"  Height  elate,  transfigured  feature,  majesty  sublime  with  grace, 
Glorious  in  the  awful  beauty  of  Olympian  form  and  face,,,  — 

With  the  mantle  of  his  greatness  wrapt  round  about  him 
and  his  triple  laurels  still  fresh  upon  his  brow,  the  icy  hand 
of  death,  the  fell  destroyer,  was  laid  upon  him,  and  he  came 
home  to  Marshfield  to  die. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  85 

Herein  I  find  a  most  convincing  proof  of  the  simplicity 
and  native  grandeur  of  his  character  as  a  man. 

He  who,  by  his  spoken  word,  hud  held  command  of  list- 
ening senates ;  who  had  sat  upon  the  thrones  of  state  and 
dispensed  wisdom  and  truth  to  the  multitude  with  so  much 
grace  and  dignity  ;  who  for  forty  years  had  enjoyed  nearly  all 
the  honors  that  a  flattering  world  could  bestow,  when  he 
was  wearied  turned  his  face  homeward  to  this  little  hamlet 
town  to  make  it  his  final  resting-place  —  this,  this  is  indeed 
grandeur  of  an  almost  superhuman  order. 

I  Aveli  remember  how  he  was  wont  to  say  that  "  one  majr 
live  as  a  conqueror,  a  king  or  a  magistrate,  but  one  must 
die  like  a  man."  And  truly  this  familiar  saying  was  the 
key-note  to  his  life  and  death.  He  had  walked  as  a  king 
among  men,  conquering  all  through  sheer  force  of  mind  and 
heart.  "  Since  Charlemagne,"  says  Theodore  Parker,  "  I  think 
there  has  not  been  such  a  grand  figure  in  all  Christendom." 
And  when  his  time  had  arrived,  he  went  forth  to  meet  his 
fate  "  corde  magno  et  animo  volenti"  with  all  the  composure 
of  one  Avho  had  everything  to  hope  for,  and  nothing  to  fear. 
Great  and  profoundly  reverent  in  life,  it  should  be  said  that 
Daniel  Webster  was  still  greater  and  more  reverent  in  death. 
The  calm  serenity,  the  utter  fearlessness,  the  sublime  resigna- 
tion and  the  Christian  fortitude  with  Avhich  he  met  the  awful 
summons  has  scarce  a  parallel  in  history.  And  this  crown- 
ing act  of  his  life,  with  his  noble  profession  of  Christian 
faith,  cannot  but  win  the  admiration  of  all  people  forever. 

It  was  just  thirty  years  ago  this  very  month  of  October 
that  his  great  spirit  passed  calmly  away  on  a  quiet  Sabbath 
morn. 

And  who  can  doubt,  fellow-citizens,  but  that  on  this  su- 
preme day  of  his  life  his  greatest  consolation,  M  when  his  eyes 
were  turned  for  the  last  time  to  behold  the  sun  in  heaven, 
was,  to  see  him  shining  on  the  glorious  ensign  of  the  Repub- 


86  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

lie,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds  as  they  floated  over  the  sea 
and  over  the  land,  and  in  every  wind  under  the  whole 
heavens,  that  sentiment  dear  to  every  American  heart  — 
Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable  !" 

It  is  said  that  the  words  I  still  live  were  the  last  to  seal 
his  quivering  lips  in  death.  Were  they  prophetic  ?  Did  the 
dying  man  forecast  the  future  ?  Ten  thousand  faithful  sons 
of  Massachusetts  came  down  to  the  sea  with  sorrowing 
hearts  ;  and  here  on  this  spot,  October  29,  1852,  they  joined 
the  funeral  cortege  to  pay  their  last  sad  tribute  to  him  they 
loved  so  well.  Their  ranks  to-day  are  thinned  indeed  ;  the 
bones  of  many  are  whitening  on  the  battlefields  of  the  South  ; 
but  some  there  are,  perhaps  many  within  sound  of  my  voice, 
who  remember  well  that  famous  day  and  year.  Ask  them 
to-day  if  Webster  still  lives,  and  they  will  give  you  as 
answer:  Does  the  sun  still  move  in  his  heavenly  orbit? 
Have  the  moon  and  stars  ceased  to  give  forth  light?  Is 
humanity  so  far  debased  as  to  be  unmindful  of  those  who 
served  her  most  and  best?  God  forbid  that  Daniel  Webster 
should  be  forgotten  !  He  was  of  humanity's  highest  and 
best,  with  some  of  its  weakness,  but  with  most  of  its  great- 
ness. He  served  his  country  faithfully  and  well.  And 
therefore  I  say  that  wherever  there  beats  an  honest  Ameri- 
can heart,  wherever  there  throbs  a  pulse  of  the  true  friend 
of  human  kind,  there  also  will  the  memory  of  Webster  still 
live,  and  there  will  it  endure  forever. 

Webster  will  live  through  his  achievements,  which,  like 
the  principles  of  truth  wherewith  they  were  effected,  are 
eternal  and  immutable.  And  whether  we  regard  him  as  a 
lawgiver  or  as  an  orator,  his  greatness  is  so  unparalleled  that 
the  influences  he  has  left  behind  can  never  die.  As  a  law- 
giver he  followed  nature  to  the  extreme  of  just  and  natural 
compensation.  There  was  nothing  obscure  or  mythical  in 
the  status  and  principles  of  his  mind ;  and  he  has  done  more 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  87 

to  lay  a  permanent  legal  and  constitutional  foundation  for 
this  Republic  than  any  other  man,  although  I  may  add  that 
the  principles  of  law  established  in  his  works  are  of  so  gen- 
eral a  nature  that  they  may  be  applied  to  almost  any  place 
and  time.  And  first,  as  regards  the  land  question  in  its  rela- 
tion to  a  republic,  Webster  said  that  Europe  would  be  tied 
to  monarchical  forms  only  so  long  as  the  lands  were  kept  in 
bulk  from  the  people  ;  so  long  as  the  present  laws  of  primo- 
geniture existed  and  were  in  force,  so  long  would  England  be 
bound  to  a  monarchy;  while  France,  on  the  other  hand, 
divided  and  sub-divided,  would  find  in  this  the  greatest  safe- 
guard for  its  Republic.  Accordingly,  in  the  free  sale  of 
public  lands  and  the  diversity  of  means  of  living,  he  found 
the  strongest  support  to  the  Union.  In  his  Pilgrim  address 
of  1820  he  predicted  the  occupancy  of  the  Pacific  coast  by 
our  government,  and  all  his  public  efforts  were  on  a  scale 
comprehending  such  a  possibility.  Industrial  independence 
was  a  bond  of  union  while  the  general  government  was  pro- 
tected in  its  necessary  privileges.  State  rights  also  were  to 
him  sacred  as  long  as  the  rights  of  the  Union  were  respected. 
He  was  a  States'  rights  man  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  term, 
for  he  reserved  to  the  general  government  only  the  power 
to  sustain  and  protect  itself,  as  the  present  Constitution 
unequivocally  provides.  He  believed  in  a  proper  tariff  ad- 
justing itself  to  the  needs  of  the  whole  people,  but  not  op- 
pressive in  its  local  effects. 

He  sustained  internal  improvements  of  rivers,  harbors  and 
public  highways ;  but  improvements  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whole  people,  not  local  improvements  carried  out  for  mere  per- 
sonal gain.  His  financial  policy  had  its  base  upon  a  metallic 
currency  ;  and  yet  no  one  would  be  so  foolish  as  to  say  that 
an  issue  from  the  government  holding  the  specie  would  be 
foreign  to  its  privileges  or  detrimental  to  the  rights  of  the 
people.     As  to  what  is  now  termed  Civil  Service  Reform  he 


88  THE   WEBSTER  'CENTENNIAL. 

was  its  primary  author.  He  did  not  favor  the  ins  simply 
because  they  were  in,  irrespective  of  merit ;  but  invariably 
sustained  the  "survival  of  the  fittest."  With  labor  and  cap- 
ital as  connected  in  our  day  he  would  work  no  division.  He 
honored  labor,  and  regarded  it  as  the  best  and  surest  capital 
that  the  country  could  possess.  He  knew  our  own  resources 
as  no  other  man  ;  and  our  prosperity,  he  said,  was  depend- 
ent on  their  proper  development.  Education  with  him  was 
a  primary  requisite  for  individual  as  well  as  national  progress. 
He  would  not  have  been  satisfied  with  a  mere  technical 
knowledge  of  books,  but  would  have  made  education  an 
inspired  way  for  securing  the  means  of  living  on  a  high  pro- 
gressive stage  of  elevation.  Finally,  without  being  in  the 
strictest  sense  either  a  politician  or  a  partisan,  he  ever  recog- 
nized the  value  of,  and  always  maintained  a  strong  fidelity  to, 
his  party.  And  yet  he  often  asserted,  and  the  assertion  is 
true  to-day,  that  two  thirds  of  the  voters  in  the  whole  country 
thought  alike  on  all  essential  questions  of  political  economy 
— they  were  only  separated  by  traditional  influences  of  party, 
without  which  they  would  have  voted  together. 

This  was  Webster's  political  platform  — a  platform  in 
every  way  suited  both  to  his  time  and  to  ours,  and,  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  say,  suited  to  the  real  needs  of  this  country 
for  a  century  yet  to  come.  The  political  works  of  Chatham, 
Pitt,  Burke  or  Fox  do  not  contain  so  much  of  the  real 
science  of  government,  whether  republican  or  monarchical, 
as  do  the  published  works  of  Daniel  Webster.  And  if  the 
principles  he  enunciated,  whether  in  the  hails  of  state  or 
otherwise,  be  faithfully  applied  by  his  countrymen,  if  the 
laws  he  gave  and  the  counsels  he  recommended  be  diligently 
observed  and  honestly  enacted,  this  Republic  will  stand  — 
and  stand  while  the  tottering  thrones  of  Europe  decay  and 
crumble  to  dust  and  disappear  finally  from  the  face  of  the 
earth. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  89 

So  much  for  Webster  as  a  lawgiver.  I  shall  enter  upon 
no  critical  analysis  of  Webster  as  an  orator.  We  have  already 
dilated  somewhat  at  length  upon  this  side  of  his  character 
elsewhere.  It  therefore  remains  for  me  to  resume,  in  a  few 
words,  merely  the  leading  characteristics  of  this  his  great- 
ness. Webster  was  sui  generis,  his  own  type  of  an  orator. 
They  say  he  lacked  the  imaginative  faculty  to  give  high 
color  and  vividness  to  his  speeches.  But  this,  to  my 
mind,  is  a  great  mistake.  Webster  possessed  a  strong  im- 
agination, but  it  was  of  a  peerless  and  original  order.  He 
did  not  like  fiction,  indeed,  and  his  imagination  was  never 
used  for  the  creation  of  unreal  pictures.  But,  on  the  con- 
trary, he  sought  to  portray  the  truth,  and  the  real  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth,  in  all  its  force  and  beauty.  His 
highest  bursts  of  eloquence  were  the  imagery  of  nature. 
When  observed,  even  through  microscopic  lenses  magnified 
and  brought  up  to  the  tastes  of  the  most  fastidious,  they 
were  found  to  be  invariably  true  to  their  originals.  Every 
thought  was  marked  and  numbered  and  had  its  appropriate 
place,  as  did  the  colorings  of  his  imagery.  His  genius  was 
the  genius  of  intellect,  and  not  the  genius  of  intuition.  The 
former  with  a  high  moral  nature  always  reveals  the  truth  ; 
the  latter  paints  imaginative  pictures  which  are  oftentimes 
unreal  and  evanescent.  The  genius  of  Burke  was  the  geniuo 
of  intuition.  His  efforts  were  metaphysically  ideal,  while 
those  of  Webster  were  intrinsically  real.  The  lees  of  the 
healing  oil  used  by  Webster  when  tried  down  to  their  ulti- 
mates  would  form  a  mass  of  natural  principles  ;  while  that 
of  Burke,  after  its  volatile  elements  had  been  exhaled, 
would  leave  nothing  behind  but  ashes.  Burke's  culminating 
illuminations  were  still  meteoric  ;  Webster's,  after  the  thun- 
ders were  o'er,  were  the  quiet  cerulean  beams  of  the  rain- 
bow with  penetrating  flashes  of  sunlight.  The  former  went 
out  like  an  incandescent  flame  ;  the  latter  only  faded  as  the 
pacific  surface  of  the  sky  became  wholly  serene. 


90  THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

It  takes  the  best  elements  of  both  Burke  and  Fox  to  make 
up  even  a  portion  of  the  character  of  Webster,  while  for  love 
and  reverence  of  the  divinely  beautiful,  those  of  Milton 
should  be  added. 

Another  characteristic  of  Webster's  mind  in  oratory  was 
his  love  of  truth.  If  his  cause  could  be  gained  by  the  illus- 
tration and  proof  of  truth  itself,  he  was  the  man  to  gain  it ; 
if  not,  like  Sampson  shorn  of  his  locks,  he  was  powerless. 

His  oratorical  force  was  not  of  a  vindictive  character  which 
would  lacerate  and  destroy  its  object,  but  rather  a  sublime 
feeling  that  would  make  the  victim  feel  willing  to  immolate 
himself  beneath  the  ruin  which  his  own  folly  had  created. 

His  mind  was  ponderous  and  elephantine  in  its  tread,  but 
never  cat-like  ;  it  never  crushed  principles  like  some  of  his 
rougher  associates  in  legislation,  nor  like  those  whose 
thought  was  so  nimble  and  step  so  light  as  to  be  able  to 
cover  up  and  hide  the  salient  points  of  a  debate.  Further- 
more, there  was  no  lack  of  foresight  in  his  conceptions,  and 
the  structures  created  by  his  mind  were  solid  yet  roomy, 
harmonious  and  yet  comfortably  adapted  to  real  use,  and 
always  supremely  beautiful. 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  to  speak  of  the  beauty  of  his 
orations,  which  with  golden  effulgence  are  scattered  over 
each  line  and  thought  and  sentence,  to  enumerate  the 
honeyed  charms  that  cluster  round  the  spoken  words  of 
Daniel  Webster,  to  refresh  your  minds  and  revive  your 
memories  of  the  golden-mouthed  eloquence  of  him  whose 
voice  to-day  is  hushed  in  the  silence  of  the  grave, — this, 
fellow-citizens,  this  is  a  task  I  leave  for  other  and  more  elo- 
quent tongues  than  mine.  But  this  I  will  say,  when  the 
history  of  this  world's  oratory  comes  to  be  written,  when  the 
names  of  those  who  have  pleaded  right  earnestly  and  well  for 
truth,  justice,  humanity  and  honor  are  inscribed  in  letters  of 
bronze  and  marble,  when  the  names  of   Demosthenes  and 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  91 

Cicero,  of  Burke,  Fox  and  Sheridan,  will  be  no  longer 
quoted,  then  will  still  be  remembered  the  name  and  Avords 
of  Daniel  Webster,  the  greatest  of  American  orators. 

And  now  my  task  is  well-nigh  done.  To  other  days  in  the 
great  future  we  must  now  commit  this  interesting  spot,  its 
decorations  and  observances,  its  memoirs  and  its  teachings. 
To  those  who  come  after  us  we  bequeath  it  as  a  legacy  of 
love,  to  be  cherished  as  the  Mecca  of  constitutional  states- 
manship. An  hundred  years  have  now  winged  their  fleeting 
course,  and  yet,  in  the  lapse  of  ages  the  experience  of  a 
century  is  as  a  grain  of  sand  upon  the  seashore.  We  must 
not  forget,  however,  that  the  duty  of  this  day  has  been  to 
analyze  with  the  past,  the  period  we  now  compass,  and  thus 
draw  for  the  future,  useful,  valuable  and  instructive  lessons. 

Onward  and  upward  our  aim :  as  through  the  cycle 
of  ages  we  move,  forgetting  not  the  changing  ground  on 
which  we  stand,  nor  the  progressive  times  in  which  we  live. 
With  the  past  in  our  history,  we  strive  to  profit,  and  upon 
Webster's  teachings  predict  future  successful  effort  for  in- 
creasing goodness  and  greatness.  We  leave  behind  a  century 
whose  march,  sometimes  martial  in  its  tread,  gave  birth  to 
mighty  minds  to  formulate  its  civil  laws.  Strong  men,  wise 
heads  and  honest  hearts,  that  culled  from  the  universe  of 
thought,  texts  to  fortify  and  maintain  an  imperishable  polit- 
ical union.  The  founders  of  the  Republic  are  gone  !  Webster, 
too,  its  defender,  is  gone  !  and  we  mourn  that  ten  decades 
of  life,  while  measuring  our  country's  weal,  have  buried 
beneath  the  dust  all  mortal  of  her  sires  !  We  honored  them 
in  life,  we  revere  them  in  death,  and  shall  ever  love  to  pay 
tribute  to  their  virtues  in  the  forum,  as  well  as  over  their 
silent  and  grass-grown  graves. 


Note.— We  copy  the  following  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev.  William  Hague,  as  pub- 
lished in  the  "  Magazine  of  American  History,"  August,  1882 :  — 

'The  quiet  departure  of  Mrs.  Caroline  Leroy  Webster,  on  Sunday,  February  20,  at  the 


Lerov  mansion,  was  announced  genei*ally  by  the  press,  and  awakened  many  slumbering 
dated  with  New"  York,  Boston  and  Washington,  as  well  as 


memories  of  her  life,  associatec 


92  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

PROF.  WILKINSON'S  POEM. 

Ye  see  him  truly,  now ; 

Their  hour  and  power  are  past 
Who  fain  had  shamed  that  brow : 

It  wears  its  crown  at  last ! 

Hail  him,  his  countrymen ! 

First  of  your  foremost  few, 
Given  back  to  you  again 

Yet  greater  than  ye  knew. 

Greater  —  for  good  and  great ; 

Not  false,  as  they  forswore ! 
He,  who  to  save  the  State, 

The  State  to  please  forbore. 

Well  may  the  State  be  saved  — 
Saved  at  such  cost  of  blame, 

While  still  her  mood  he  braved  — 
Accord  him.  late,  his  fame ! 


His  way  in  farming  all  men  knew ; 
Way  wide,  forecasting,  free, 
A  liberal  tilth  that  made  the  tiller  poor. 
That  huge  Websterian  plough  what  furrows  drew 
Through  fallows  fattened  from  the  barren  sea ! 
Yoked  to  that  plough  and  matched  for  mighty  size, 
What  oxen  moved !  —  in  progress  equal,  sure. 
Unconscious  of  resistance,  as  of  force 
Not  finite,  elemental,  like  his  own, 
Taking  its  way  with  unimpeded  course. 
He  loved  to  look  into  their  meek  brown  eyes, 
That  with  a  light  of  love  half  human  shone 
Calmly  on  him  from  out  the  ample  front. 

with  Pelham  and  New  Kochelle.  Born  at  the  house  of  her  father,  Jacob  Leroy,  Esq., 
New  York,  1797,  a  considerable  proportion  of  her  early  remembrances  were  associated 
with  scenes  of  rural  life  pertaining  both  to  the  manor  and  the  town. 

"Mr.  Webster,  having  met  Miss  Leroy  at  her  city  residence,  recognized  at  once  the 
rare  quality  of  her  intellectual  culture,  her  graceful  manners,  her  conversational  gifts, 
and  her  queenly  power  as  a  leader  of  society.  In  the  year  1829  she  became  his  second 
wife,  and  in  the  more  extended  sphere  of  social  and  public  life  that  she  thus  entered, 
W'.s,  from  first  to  last,  perfectly  at  home. 

"The  storm  that  raged  on  Wednesday,  March  1,  was  at  its  height  when  the  funeral 
service  was  ministered  in  Trinity  Church,  New  Roc'nelle,  by  the  Rector,  Rev.  Mr. 
Canedy,  and  Rev.  Mr.  Higgins,  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Pelham;  and  as  the  attendance 
of  ladies  was  necessarily  limited,  the  large  gathering  of  gentlemen,  from  homes  far  and 
near,  was  remarkable,  indicating  the  profoundly  cherished  memories  relating  to  the 
career  of  the  great  statesman,  the  completed  close  of  whose  home  life  on  earth'seemed 
as  if  now  emphasized  by  the  funeral  dirge  within  the  temple,  and  the  majestic  voice  of 
the  tempest  without. 

"Not  long  after  the  death  of  Mr  Webster,  as  we  well  remember,  one  hundred  citi- 
zens of  Boston  contributed  one  thousand  dollars  each  to  a  fund  of  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  which  was  invested  for  Mrs.  Webster's  benefit,  and  the  interest  of  this  she  duly 
received  at  her  home  in  New  Rochelle,  a  timely  and  welcome  contribution  to  the  cheer 
of  her  tranquil  life  evening." 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  93 

So.  when  ho  came  to  die 

At  Marshfleld  by  the  sea 
And  now  the  end  is  nigh, 

Up  from  the  pleasant  lea 
Move  his  dumb  friends  in  solemn,  slow, 

Funereal  procession,  and  before 
Their  master's  door 

In  melancholy  file  compassionately  go ; 
He  will  be  glad  to  see  his  trusty  friends  once  more. 

Now  let  him  look  a  look  that  shall  suffice,  — 
Lo,  let  the  dying  man 
Take  all  the  peace  he  can 
From  those  large  tranquil  brows  and  deep  soft  eyes. 
Rest  it  will  be  to  him, 
Before  his  eyes  grow  dim, 
To  bathe  his  aged  eyes  in  one  deep  gaze 
Commingled  with  old  days, 
On  faces  of  such  friends  sincere, 
With  fondness  brought  from  boyhood  dear. 

Farewell,  a  long  look  and  the  last, 
And  these  have  turned  and  passed. 
Henceforth  he  will  no  more 
As  was  his  wont  before, 
Step  forth  from  yonder  door 
To  taste  the  freshness  of  the  early  dawn, 
The  whiteness  of  the  sky, 
The  whitening  stars  on  high, 
The  dews  yet  white  that  lie 
Far  spread  in  pearl  upon  the  glimmering  lawn ; 
Never  at  evening  go, 
Sole  pacing  to  and  fro, 
With  musing  step  and  slow, 
Beneath  the  cope  of  heaven  set  thick  with  stars, 
Considering  by  wiiose  hand 
Those  works,  in  wisdom  planned, 
Were  fashioned,  and  still  stand 
Serenely  fast  and  fair  above  these  earthly  jars. 
Never  again !    Forth  he  will  soon  be  brought 

By  neighbors  that  have  loved  him,  having  known, 
Plain  farmers,  with  the  farmer's  natural  thought 

And  feeling,  sympathetic  to  his  own. 
All  in  a  temperate  air,  a  golden  light, 

Rich  with  October,  sad  with  afternoon, 
Fitly  let  him  be  laid,  with  rustic  rite, 

To  rest  amid  the  ripened  harvest  boon. 
He  loved  the  ocean's  mighty  murmur  deep, 


94  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

And  this  shall  lull  him  through  his  dreamless  sleep. 
But  those  plain  men  will  speak  above  his  head,    . 
This  is  a  lonesome  world,  and  Webster  dead ! 


Be  sure,  O  State,  that  he. 
So  great,  so  simple,  wrought  for  thee, 
By  only  being  what  he  could  but  be. 
He  loved  thee.  State,  with  self -postponing  love ; 
At  length,  through  him,  at  leisure  to  be  just, 
Pronounce,  I  pray, 

To-day. 
Thy  late  "  Well  done!  " 

Well  won, 
Upon  thy  son  — 
Late,  but  full-voiced  and  penitent,  above 
His  dust. 

The  great  assembly,  which  at  this  point  numbered  fully 
10,000  people,  sang  the  following  verses  from  Longfellow's 
"Psalm  of  Life,"  and  thus  closed  the  exercises  at  the 
tomb :  — 

Tell  me  not,  in  mournful  numbers, 

Life  is  but  an  empty  dream ! 
For  the  soul  is  dead  that  slumbers, 

And  things  are  not  what  they  seem. 

Life  is  real !     Life  is  earnest ! 

And  the  grave  is  not  its  goal : 
Dust  thou  art,  to  dust  returnest, 

Was  not  spoken  of  the  soul. 

Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 

We  can  make  our  lives  sublime, 
And,  departing,  leave  behind  us 

Footprints  on  the  sands  of  time ;  — 

Footprints,  that  perhaps  another, 

Sailing  o'er  life's  solemn  main, 
A  forlorn  and  shipwrecked  brother, 

Seeing,  shall  take  heart  again. 

Let  us,  then,  be  up  and  doing, 

With  a  heart  for  any  fate ; 
Still  achieving,  still  pursuing, 

Learn  to  labor  and  to  wait. 


THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  95 

The  guests  made  a  brief  inspection  of  the  lot,  and  after 
shaking  hands  with  a  few  privileged  persons  the  President 
again  entered  his  carriage,  and  the  procession  re-formed  and 
marched  to  the  grand  tent  of  the  Society. 

It  was  three  o'clock  before  the  procession,  returning  from 
the  tomb,  reached  the  great  dining-tents,  the  one  devoted  to 
the  Webster  Historical  Society  and  guests,  having  plates  laid 
for  five  hundred  people.  On  a  raised  platform,  running 
lengthwise,  on  the  south  side,  was  a  table  with  twenty-five 
plates.  In  the  rear  of  the  centre  was  a  glory  surrounding  a 
painting  of  Mr.  Webster,  a  decorated  rail  running  in  the  rear 
of  the  seats  of  the  principal  personages.  The  seats  at  this 
table  were  occupied  as  follows  :  To  the  right  of  Gov.  Long, 
the  new  President  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  sat  the 
President  of  the  United  States;  then  in  order  on  the  riffht 
were  Mrs.  Fletcher  Webster,  Hon.  W.  E.  Chandler,  Mayor 
Green,  Hon.  James  Campbell,  Mrs.  Campbell,  Gov.  Bell  of 
New  Hampshire,  Mr.  Williams,  Mr.  Armistead,  ex-Gov. 
Boutwell,  Dr.  George  B.  Loring,  President  Bartlett,  Hon. 
Stillman  B.  Allen  and  C.  A.  Arthur,  Jr.  To  the  left  of 
Gov.  Long  the  order  was  as  follows  :  Hon.  Stephen  M. 
Allen,  Mrs.  Allen,  Senators  Dawes  and  Hoar,  Assistant 
Postmaster-General  Hatton,  Collector  Worthington,  Secre- 
tary Lincoln,  Private  Secretary  Phillips,  ex-Gov.  Farnham 
of  Vermont,  and  Gov.  Littlefield  of  Rhode  Island.  The 
great  tent  was  appropriately  though  not  profusely  decorated 
with  streamers  and  illuminated  seals  of  the  several  New  Eng- 
land States,  also  of  New  York.  When  the  assembly  was 
seated  at  the  table,  President  Allen  announced  the  following 
list  of  officers  of  the  Society  for  the  ensuing  year :  Presi- 
dent, Gov.  John  D.  Long ;  Vice-Presidents,  Hon.  Albert 
Palmer,  Henry  W.  Nelson,  Stillman  B.  Allen,  William  As- 
pinwall  and  A.  E.  Pillsbury ;  Executive  Committee,  Hon. 
Stephen  M.  Allen,  Hon.  E.  S.  Tobey,  John  H.  Butler,  Ro- 


96  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

land  Worthington  and  Edward  F.  Thayer;  Corresponding 
Secretary,  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen ;  Treasurer,  Francis  Bout- 
well  ;  Recording  Secretary,  Thomas  H.  Cummings  ;  Commit- 
tee on  Perfecting  Organization,  N.  W.  Ladd,  Albert  Palmer, 
E.  S.  Tobey,  George  F.  Richardson,  Stillman  B.  Allen,  Ed- 
ward Wyman  and  B.  P.  Smith.  Without  further  formality 
the  dinner  was  proceeded  with. 

Directly  in  front  of  President  Arthur  sat  together  the  two 
ex-Governors  —  Rice  and  Jewell  —  respectively  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut.  The  dinner  was  not  long,  and, 
before  it  was  fairly  concluded,  a  delegation  consisting 
of  Cols.  Wyman  and  Kingsbury  and  Gen.  Martin,  repre- 
senting the  Ancients,  appeared  and  were  soon  in  close  com- 
munion with  Gov.  Long  and  the  President.  They  expressed 
the  desire  of  the  Ancients  to  the  effect  that  that  body  wished 
to  see  the  ruler  of  the  nation  for  only  a  few  moments.  The 
President  was  willing,  and  was  excused  for  five  minutes. 
Escorted  by  the  delegation  in  question,  as  well  as  by  Hon. 
Stephen  M.  Allen,  the  President  was  soon  in  the  presence 
of  ye  Ancients,  President  Arthur  never  gazed  on  a  happier 
company,  and  he  was  received  with  round  after  round  of  ap- 
plause, the  gentlemen  all  rising  and  cheering  as  he  came  to 
the  right  hand  ot  Captain  Mack.  As  soon  as  he  could  be 
heard,  Captain  Mack  said:  "Allow  me  to  introduce  to  you 
the  first  President  of  the  United  States  whom  we  ever  had 
the  honor  to  receive.  Allow  me  to  say  to  you,  gentlemen, 
that  this  is  a  bright  day  for  me  as  your  Commander  to  think 
I  have  had  the  honor,  commanding  the  Ancient  and  Honora- 
ble Artillery  Company,  to  do  escort  duty  for  the  first  time  to 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  Gentlemen,  now  allow 
me  to  introduce  to  you  President  Arthur  :  God  bless  him  !  " 
President  Arthur  was  cheered  to  the  echo.  Bowing,  as  the 
applause  ceased,  he  said,  — 

"  I  thank  you  most  cordially  for  your  kindly  and  enthusi- 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  97 

astic  greeting,  and  I  thank  you,  too,  for  the  pleasure  and 
the  honor  of  your  escort  duty.  I  am  glad  to  meet  so  many 
'Ancient  and  Honorable '  men  [laughter  and  applause] ,  and 
I  hope  that  each  member  of  the  corps  will,  like  the  Countess 
of  Desmond, 

Live  to  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  ten, 
And  die  by  the  fall  from  a  cherry-tree  then. 

"  You  each  and  all  have  my  good  wishes  and  my  thanks  for 
your  escort  duty,  and  for  your  courtesies."     [Applause.] 

After  a  few  moments  of  pleasant  interchange  of  sentiment, 
the  President  returned  to  his  seat  in  the  other  tent. 

At  the  close  of  the  dinner  Gov.  Long  was  introduced  as 
the  President  of  the  day.     He  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

ADDRESS  OF  GOVERNOR  LONG. 

A  hundred  years  ago  last  January,  Daniel  Webster  was 
born.  Thirty  years  ago  this  month  he  died  and  was  buried 
on  this  farm.  To-day  we  visit  his  grave,  not  pouring  upon 
it  libations  of  wine  and  milk  and  blood,  not  shedding  over  it 
the  tears  of  recent  grief,  but  paying  it  the  tribute  of  a  rev- 
erent memory,  the  gratitude  of  a  nation's  heart,  and  the 
justice  due  a  mighty  defender  and  savior  of  our  country. 
My  poor  word  of  praise  and  criticism  concerning  him  has 
been  spoken,  and  I  shall  not  repeat  it.  Here  he  speaks  for 
himself.  On  this  sacred  soil,  within  sight  of  these  elms,  in 
the  open  air  of  this  October  day,  there  comes  a  feeling  that 
he  is  here,  that  his  great  eyes  greet  us,  and  that  his 
eloquent  lips  will  speak  and  silence  ours.  And  here  indeed 
he  is.  What  idle  formality  was  it  that  took  us  to  the  dust 
he  long  ago  shook  off,  when  here,  in  every  whisper  of  the 
wind,  in  every  scarlet  leaf,  in  these  woods  and  fields  and 
streams,  he,  the  genius  of  them  all,  still  lives,  as  he  still  lives 
in  the  Constitution  he  expounded  and  moulded,  in  the  Union 


y«  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

he  cemented  and  preserved,  and  in  the  impress  he  stamped 
upon  the  political  sentiment  of  the  American  people. 

This  spot  has  well  been  chosen  for  the  tribute  of  this  day. 
Here,  with  a  sense  of  restfulness  and  sympathy,  came  the 
great  heart  of  Daniel  Webster.  Large  as  was  the  honor  he 
bestowed  on  Marshfield,  he  bestowed  nothing  grander  than  he 
found.  For  here  the  lonely  sea,  which  he  loved,  and  in  whose 
vastness  and  grandeur  his  own  great  soul  felt  a  subtle  kin- 
ship, communed  with  him,  yet  spoke  no  language  he  did  not 
comprehend,  and  breathed  no  whisper  he  did  not  catch. 
Here  with  him  the  Pilgrim  sage  sought  the  freedom  of  the 
new  world  for  the  exercise  of  his  conscience.  Here  Winslow 
and  Standish  and  Bradford  and  Brewster  walked  the  forest 
aisles  and  discussed  with  him  great  themes  of  constitutional 
law,  of  chartered  rights,  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  Here, 
under  his  elm  and  from  beneath  his  almost  equally  overhang- 
ing brim  and  brow,  he  saw  the  sails  of  the  "Mayflower"  far 
off,  and  in  her  cabin  gravely  drew  the  compact  that  embodied 
the  germ  of  those  basal  ideas  of  union  and  liberty,  one  and 
inseparable,  which  were  imprinted  on  his  heart  like  a  legend. 
Here  in  all  the  earth  and  air  was  the  spirit  of  that  Pilgrim 
enterprise  and  purpose  of  which  he  never  tired,  to  which  he 
drew  close,  and  from  which  he  drank  copious  inspiration. 
Here,  too,  the  very  soil,  responding  to  his  sympathetic  care 
and  nurture,  turned  to  verdure  and  beauty ;  here  he  looked 
his  oxen  in  the  face ;  and  here  the  wide  fields,  barren  and 
bleak,  clothed  themselves  for  him  with  the  graceful  shade  of 
groves  and  were  musical  with  the  rustle  of  the  waving  grain. 
In  the  touching  homely  humanity  which  attaches  to  Webster 
in  his  relation  to  rural  things,  to  the  farm  and  to  all  the  in- 
stincts of  neighborly  New  England  life,  there  is  something 
that  endears  him  to  us,  independent  of  his  great  eminence 
as  a  statesman  and  a  lawyer.  Whether  he  planted,  or  fished, 
or  gunned,  or  waded  streams,  or  cooled  his  shadowy  brow 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  99 

under  the  trees,  or  drove  over  the  country  roads,  or  met  his 
neighbors  in  the  fields  or  by  the  fireside,  it  was  all  the  same  ; 
it  was  the  sense  of  the  proximity  of  a  New  England  man,  born 
in  the  humble  farm-house,  true  to  the  instincts  of  the  fields, 
and  loving  the  cattle  and  the  hay,  the  furrow  and  the  marsh. 

And  here  the  great  orator,  the  great  Senator,  the  great 
lawyer,  is  still  the  Marshfield  farmer  and  neighbor.  He  has 
to-day  given  us  all  a  cordial  welcome.  He  has  fed  us  at  his 
table.  He  has  sat  with  us  in  his  library  and  under  his  elm. 
He  has  shown  us  his  crops  and  barns,  his  cattle  and  sheep. 
We  grasp  his  hand  and  go  back  to  our  homes ;  and  not  till 
we  have  broken  the  charm  of  his  personal  courtesy  are 
we  fully  conscious  that  we  have  been  with  him  who  pro- 
nounced the  magnificent  funeral  oration  of  Adams  and  Jef- 
ferson, the  discourses  at  Plymouth  Rock  and  Bunker  Hill, 
the  Dartmouth  College  argument  and  the  overwhelming  and 
resistless  replies  to  Hayne  and  Calhoun.  All  honor  to  his 
memory ;  all  gratitude  for  his  service ;  all  justice  to  his 
fame  ! 

It  is  my  happy  privilege  and  duty  to  give  cordial  welcome 
to  all  who  have  gathered  here  —  to  the  officers  and  citizens 
of  this  town  of  Marshfield  and  this  County  of  Plymouth  in 
which  Webster  lived,  and  to  my  fellow-citizens  of  this  Com- 
monwealth of  which  he  was  so  many  years  the  admiration 
and  glory.  I  welcome  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery 
Company  and  the  veteran  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  Grand 
Army,  whose  gunpowder  was  Webster's  logic.  In  the  name 
of  the  Commonwealth  and  in  behalf  of  the  Webster  His- 
torical Society,  I  also  cordially  welcome  the  distinguished 
guests  who  have  come  from  beyond  our  borders,  the  Gov- 
ernors of  our  beloved  sister  New  England  States,  and  espe- 
cially him  whose  name  I  have  kept  till  last  in  order  to 
present  him  first,  the  President  of  the  United  States.  Wel- 
come, sir,  to  Massachusetts  and  to  Marshfield  —  to  the  State 


100  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

of  the  Adamses,  whose  successor  you  are,  and  to  the  grave  of 
Webster,  but  for  whom  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  to- 
day they  would  have  had  no  successor.  Massachusetts  thinks 
no  courtesy  too  great,  no  greeting  too  cordial,  to  bestow 
upon  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation  in  which  there  is  no 
stauncher  or  more  loyal  State.  But  with  especial  interest 
does  she  welcome  you,  remembering  your  association  with 
Garfield  whom  she  honored  and  loved,  the  dignity  with  which 
you  bore  the  terrible  ordeal  of  his  long  agony  of  death  and 
succeeded  to  his  place,  and  the  courage  and  force  of  convic- 
tion with  which,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  you  have  exer- 
cised the  prerogative  of  your  great  office.  Fellow-citizens,  I 
present  you  to  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

His  Excellency's  words  were  closely  listened  to  and  fre- 
quently applauded,  his  allusion  to  the  exercise  by  the  Pres- 
ident of  his  veto  power  being  received  with  most  decided 
manifestations  of  approval.  President  Arthur's  introduction 
was  accepted  by  three  hearty  cheers. 

PRESIDENT  ARTHUR'S  ADDRESS. 

After  the  storm  of  applause  which  greeted  the  introduc- 
tion by  Governor  Long  of  the  President,  at  the  conclusion 
of  his  speech,  had  subsided,  President  Arthur  rose  and  was 
greeted  by  three  cheers  and  continuous  applause.  He  spoke 
as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen,  —  It  is  fortunately  in  ac- 
cord with  the  proprieties  of  this  occasion,  no  less  than  my 
own  inclination,  that  I  should  confine  within  narrow  limits 
my  acknowledgment  for  your  flattering  salutation.  I  am 
deeply  moved  by  the  warmth  of  your  reception  and  the 
heartiness  of  your  greeting.  It  is  but  a  fresh  display  of  the 
splendid  hospitality  which,  since  I  came  within  the  borders 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  101 

of  Massachusetts,  has  every  where  obstructed  my  way  with 
demonstrations  of  courtesy  and  respect.  [Applause.]  I 
trust,  sir,  that  neither  my  gratitude  nor  my  sympathy  with 
the  purposes  which  have  turned  our  reverent  footsteps  thith- 
erward to-day  will  be  measured  by  my  poor  endeavor  to 
give  them  expression. 

The  character  and  genius  of  that  illustrious  man  whose 
life  moved  grandly  on  in  so  many  paths  of  eminence,  in 
commemoration  of  whose  birth,  a  hundred  years  ago  to-day, 
amid  the  peaceful  scenes  where  he  found  rest  from  the  fret 
and  worry  of  life,  have  for  more  than  a  generation  been  the 
theme  of  discussion  and  eulogy.  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
labor  in  the  field  over  which  so  many  flashing  sickles  have 
swept,  and  which  has  so  long  been  crowded  with  illustrious 
gleaners ;  but  I  may,  perhaps,  be  permitted  to  declare  my 
approval  of  what  has  been  accomplished  by  this  Society  in 
furtherance  of  the  object  for  which  it  was  founded. 

It  is  asserted,  upon  wThat  I  suppose  to  be  trustworthy 
authority,  that  near  the  close  of  his  honored  life,  Mr.  Web- 
ster expressed  the  wish,  that,  for  aiding  to  transmit  his  fame 
to  future  generations  of  his  countrymen,  for  kindling  in  their 
hearts  the  flame  of  patriotism,  and  for  instructing  them  in 
tl\e  principles  of  constitutional  government,  there  should  be 
disseminated  far  and  wide  among  them  such  recorded  efforts 
of  his  genius  as  seemed  most  worthy  to  be  thus  preserved. 
Many  of  the  loftiest  and  most  inspiring  of  Mr.  Webster's 
utterances  have  long  been  as  familiar  as  household  words  in 
the  mouth  of  every  school-boy  in  the  land  ;  but  it  is  doubtless 
true  that  many  others,  scarcely  less  dignified  in  subject,  mas- 
terly in  treatment  and  splendid  in  diction,  are  comparatively 
unknown.  In  all  that  you  have  hitherto  done,  in  all  that 
you  will  henceforth  do  to  secure  the  result  which  Mr.  Web- 
ster wished,  by  the  collection  and  circulation  of  all  his  works 
which   have   permanent  value,  —  and  which  of  them   have 


102  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

not  ?  —  I  assure  you  of  my  most  earnest  sympathy.  No  one 
of  the  rising  generation  of  our  countrymen  who  seeks  to  be 
instructed  in  those  political  doctrines  which  are  the  basis  of 
our  federal  government,  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  consti- 
tutional history  of  his  country,  and  with  the  origin,  progress 
and  significance  of  its  institutions,  can  by  any  other  course 
so  surely  and  so  speedily  attain  these  ends  as  by  a  resort  to 
that  great  storehouse  of  eloquence  and  wisdom,  —  the  pub- 
lished writings  of  Daniel  Webster.  [Loud  applause.]  And 
so,  gentlemen  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  I  bid  you 
God-speed  in  this  and  all  other  laudable  work  which  you 
have  set  yourselves  to  accomplish.  Let  me  once  more  tender 
my  thanks  to  you  for  all  your  kindness,  and  express  the  pro- 
found hope  that  this  noble  Commonwealth,  all  its  cities  and 
villages  and  hamlets,  and  all  that  dwell  within  its  borders,  may 
be  blessed  by  the  abiding  presence  of  prosperity  and  peace. 

Gov.  Long  then  said :  "  An  interesting  relic  has  been 
handed  me,  an  ear  of  corn  [holding  it  up  in  his  hand]  gath- 
ered upon  this  place  upon  the  day  of  the  funeral  of  Daniel 
Webster,  thirty  years  ago,  planted  perhaps  by  him.  The 
next  item  upon  the  programme  is  the  reading  of  an  unpub- 
lished manuscript  by  Stillman  B.  Allen." 


WEBSTER'S  VINDICATION. 

Hon.  Stillman  B.  Allen,  of  Boston,  said:  "I  have  been 
requested  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Society  and  our  guests 
to  a  hitherto  unpublished  letter  of  Daniel  Webster  upon  the 
supremacy  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union  of  the  United  States.  Many  years  before  our  civil 
war,  the  statesman  at  whose  tomb  we  have  to-day  reverently 
bowed,  saw,  as  no  other  man  saw,  in  the  black  cloud  just 
rising  over  the  southern  horizon,  and  heard,  as  no  other  man 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  103 

heard,  in  the  mutterings  of  disunion  and  treason,  portents  of 
the  awful  storm  which  afterward  burst  in  desolation  upon 
our  land.  Generously,  nobly,  fruitlessly,  the  great  de- 
fender of  the  Constitution  strove  by  self-sacrifice  to  avert 
the  strife.  In  October,  1850,  while  a  member  of  President 
Fillmore's  cabinet,  Mr.  Webster  wrote  the  paper  in  question, 
intending  to  send  it  to  all  United  States  officers.  The  cabi- 
net, for  political  reasons,  objected  to  the  paper,  and  it  was 
never  sent  or  made  public.  A  few  years  ago  it  was  found 
among  Mr.  Webster's  papers  at  Marshfield.  The  following 
is  the  paper  as  prepared  by  the  then  Secretary  of  State  : " 

CABINET  CIRCULAR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  OCTOBER,  1850. 

The  open  manner  in  which  disunion,  secession,  or  a  sepa- 
ration of  the  States,  is  suggested  and  recommended  in  some 
parts  of  the  country,  naturally  calls  on  those  to  whom  are 
confided  the  power  and  trust  of  maintaining  the  Constitution, 
and  seeing  that  the  laws  of  the  United  States  be  faithfully 
executed,  to  reflect  upon  the  duties  which  events  not  yet 
indeed  probable,  but  possible,  may  require  them  to  perform. 
In  the  Northern  and  Eastern  States,  these  sentiments  of  dis- 
union are  espoused  principally  by  persons  of  heated  imagina- 
tions, assembling  together  and  passing  resolutions  of  such 
wild  and  violent  character  as  to  render  them  nearly  harmless. 
It  is  not  so  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  There  are  States 
in  the  South  in  which  secession  and  dismemberment  are  pro- 
posed or  recommended  by  persons  of  character  and  influence, 
filling  stations  of  high  public  trust,  and,  it  is  painful  to  add, 
in  some  instances,  not  unconnected  with  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  itself.  Legislatures  of  some  of  the  States 
have  directed  the  government  of  those  States  to  re-assemble 
them  in  the  contingency  of  the  passage  of  certain  laws  by 
Congress.  While  these  occurrences  do  not  constitute  an 
exigency  calling  for  any  positive  proceeding  either  by  the 


104  THE  WEBSTEE  CENTENNIAL. 

Executive  Government  of  the  United  States  or  by  Congress, 
yet  they  justly  awaken  attention,  and  admonish  those  in 
whose  hands  the  administration  of  the  government  is  placed, 
not  to  be  found  either  unadvised,  surprised  or  unprepared, 
should  a  crisis  arrive.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
is  founded  on  the  idea  of  a  division  of  power  between  the 
general  government  and  the  respective  State  governments ; 
and  this  division  is  marked  out  and  defined  by  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  with  as  much  distinctness  and  accu- 
racy as  the  nature  of  the  subject  and  the  imperfection  of 
language  will  admit.  The  powers  of  Congress  are  specifi- 
cally enumerated,  and  all  other  powers  necessary  to  carry 
these  specified  powers  into  effect  are  also  expressly  granted. 
The  Constitution  was  adopted  by  the  people  in  the  several 
States,  acting  through  the  agency  of  conventions  chosen  by 
themselves ;  the  Legislatures  of  the  States  had  nothing  to  do 
with  this  proceeding,  but  to  regulate  the  time  and  manner  in 
which  these  conventions  thus  chosen  by  the  people,  the  true 
source  of  all  power,  should  assemble.  The  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  purports  to  be  a  perpetual  form  of  govern- 
ment ;  it  contains  no  limits  for  its  duration,  and  suggests  no 
means  and  no  form  of  proceeding  by  which  it  can  be  dis- 
solved, or  its  obligations  dispensed  with  ;  it  requires  the  per- 
sonal allegiance  of  every  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and 
demands  a  solemn  oath  for  its  support  from  every  man 
employed  in  any  public  trust,  whether  under  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  or  any  State  government.  This 
obligation  and  this  oath  are  enjoined  in  broad  and  general 
terms  without  qualification  or  modification,  and  with  refer- 
ence to  no  supposed  possible  change  of  circumstances  or 
events. 

No  man  can  sit  in  a  State  Legislature,  or  on  the  bench  of  a 
State  court,  or  execute  the  process  of  such  court,  or  hold  a 
commission  in  the  militia,  or  fill  any  other  office  in  a  State 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTEXXIAL.  105 

government,  without  having  first  taken  and  subscribed  an 
oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  With- 
out looking,  therefore,  to  what  might  be  the  result  of  forcible 
revolution,  since  such  cases  can,  of  course,  be  governed  by 
no  previously  established  rule,  it  is  certainly  the  manifest 
duty  of  all  those  who  are  entrusted  with  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  in  its  several  branches  and  departments  to 
uphold  and  maintain  that  government  to  the  full  extent  of  its 
constitutional  power  and  authority,  to  enact  all  laws  neces- 
sary to  that  end,  and  to  take  care  that  those  laws  be  executed 
by  all  the  means  created  and  conferred  by  the  Constitution 
itself.  We  are  to  look  to  but  one  future,  and  that  a  future 
in  which  the  Constitution  of  the  country  shall  stand  as  it 
now  stands  ;  laws  passed  in  conformity  to  it  to  be  executed 
as  they  have  hitherto  been  executed,  and  the  public  peace 
maintained  as  it  has  hitherto  been  maintained.  Whatsoever 
of  the  future  may  be  supposed  to  lie  out  of  this  line,  is  not  so 
much  a  thing  to  be  expected,  as  a  thing  to  be  feared  and 
dreaded,  and  to  be  guarded  against  by  the  firmest  resolution 
and  the  utmost  vigilance  of  all  who  are  entrusted  with  the 
conduct  of  public  affairs ;  no  alternative  can  be  presented 
which  is  to  authorize  them  to  depart  from  the  course  which 
they  have  sworn  to  pursue.  In  conferring  the  necessary 
powers  on  the, general  government,  it  was  foreseen  that  ques- 
tions as  to  the  just  extent  of  those  powers  might  occur,  and 
that  cases  of  conflict  between  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
and  the  laws  of  individual  States  might  arise.  It  was  of  in- 
dispensable necessity,  therefore,  that  the  manner  in  which 
such  questions  should  be  settled,  and  the  tribunal  which 
should  have  the  ultimate  authority  to  decide  them,  should  be 
established  and  fixed  by  the  Constitution  itself ;  and  this  has 
been  clearly  and  amply  done.  By  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  that  instrument  itself,  all  acts  of  Congress 
passed  in  conformity  to  it,  and  public  treaties,  constitute  the 


106  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

supreme  law  of  the  land,  and  are  to  be  of  controlling  force 
and  effect,  anything  in  any  State  constitution  or  State  law  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding  ;  and  the  judges  in  every  State, 
as  well  as  of  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  are  expressly 
bound  thereby.  The  supreme  rule,  then,  is  plainly  and 
clearly  declared  and  established :  it  is  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  the  laws  of  Congress  passed  in  pursuance 
thereof,  and  treaties  made  under  the  authority  of  the  United 
States.  And  here  the  great  and  turning  question  arises, 
Who  in  the  last  resort  is  to  construe  and  interpret  this  su- 
preme law?  If  it  be  alleged,  for  example,  that  a  particular 
act  of  a  State  Legislature  is  a  violation  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  therefore  void,  what  tribunal  has 
authority  finally  to  determine  this  important  question  ?  It  is 
evident  that  if  this  power  had  not  been  vested  in  the  tribu- 
nals of  the  United  States  the  government  would  have  wanted 
the  means  of  its  own  preservation ;  all  its  granted  powers 
would  have  depended  upon  the  variable  and  uncertain  deci- 
sions of  State  courts. 

It  is  a  well-established  maxim  in  political  organization, 
that  the  judicial  power  must  be  made  co-extensive  with  the 
constitutional  and  legislative  power ;  otherwise  there  can  be 
no  adequate  provision  for  the  interpretation  and  execution  of 
the  laws.  In  conformity  with  this  plain  and  necessary  prin- 
ciple, the  Constitution  declares  that  the  judicial  power  of  the 
United  States  shall  extend  to  all  cases  in  law  and  equity  ari- 
sing under  the  Constitution,  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
and  treaties,  no  matter  in  what  court  such  a  case  arises. 
Whenever  and  wherever  such  a  case  comes  up,  the  judicial 
powrer  of  the  United  States  extends  to  it,  and  attaches  upon 
it ;  and  if  it  arise  in  any  State  court,  the  acts  of  Congress 
have  made  provision  for  its  transfer  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  there  to  be  finally  heard  and  adjudged. 
This  proceeding  is  well  known  to  the  profession,  and  need 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  107 

not  now  be  particularly  stated  or  rehearsed.  Finally,  the 
President  of  the  United  States  is  by  the  Constitution  made 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  of  the  militia 
when  called  into  the  actual  service  of  the  United  States ;  and 
all  these  military  means  are  put  under  his  control  in  order 
that  he  may  be  able  to  see  that  the  laws  be  faithfully  exe- 
cuted. The  Government  of  the  United  States,  therefore, 
though  a  government  of  limited  powers,  is  complete  in  itself, 
and,  to  the  extent  of  those  powers,  possesses  all  the  faculties 
for  legislation,  interpretation  and  execution  of  the  laws,  and 
nothing  is  necessary  but  fidelity  in  all  those  who  are  elected 
by  the  people  to  hold  office  in  its  various  departments  to 
cause  it  to  be  upheld,  maintained  and  efficiently  administered. 
The  Constitution  assigns  particular  classes  of  causes  to  the 
original  jurisdiction  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  other  courts 
are  to  exercise  such  powers  and  duties  as  are  or  may  be  pre- 
scribed by  Congress.  Congress  has  not  as  yet  found  it  neces- 
sary or  expedient  to  confer  on  the  circuit  or  other  inferior 
courts  all  the  jurisdiction  created  or  authorized  by  the  Con- 
stitution ;  thus  there  are  many  cases  in  which  a  summary 
jurisdiction  usually  belonging  to  courts,  such  as  that  of 
mandamus  and  injunction,  are  not  provided  for  by  general 
law,  but  some  such  cases  are  provided  for.  Thus  by  the  act 
of  March  2,  1833,  it  is  declared  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Circuit  Courts  of  the  United  States  shall  extend  to  all  cases 
in  law  or  equity  arising  under  the  revenue  laws  of  the  United 
States  ;  and  if  any  person  be  injured  in  his  person  or  prop- 
erty on  account  of  any  act  by  him  done  under  any  revenue 
law  of  the  United  States,  he  may  bring  suit  immediately  in 
the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  ;  and  if  he  be  sued  in 
any  State  court  for  such  act,  he  may  cause  such  suit  to  be 
immediately  removed  into  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 
States ;  and  if  the  State  court  refuse  a  copy  of  its  record, 
that  record  may  be  supplied  by  affidavit ;  and  if  the  defend- 


108  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

ant  be  under  arrest,  or  in  custody,  he  is  to  be  brought  by 
habeas  corpus  before  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States. 
Under  the  first  part  of  these  provisions,  writs  of  mandamus 
and  injunction  may  be  issued,  and  all  other  writs  and  pro- 
cesses suitable  to  the  case ;  and  any  judge  of  any  court  of 
the  United  States  is  authorized  to  grant  writs  of  habeas  cor- 
pus in  all  cases  of  prisoners  committed  or  confined  for  any 
act  done  in  pursuance  of  a  law  of  the  United  States,  or  of 
any  order,  process  or  decree  of  any  court  of  the  United 
States.  These  provisions  are  all  found  in  the  permanent 
sections  of  the  act  of  Congress  already  referred  to.  The  im- 
portance and  efficiency  of  these  provisions,  if  events  were  to 
arise  in  which  obstruction  to  the  collection  of  revenue  should 
be  attempted  or  threatened,  are  too  obvious  to  require  com- 
ment. The  several  district  attorneys  of  the  United  States 
will  take  especial  care  to  inform  themselves  of  these  enact- 
ments of  law,  and  be  prepared  to  cause  them  to  be  enforced 
in  the  first  and  in  every  case  which  may  arise,  justly  calling 
for  their  application. 

Declarations  merely  theoretical,  or  resolutions  only  de- 
claratory of  opinions,  from  however  high  authority  emanat- 
ing, cannot  properly  be  made  the  subject  of  legal  or  judicial 
proceedings.  They  may  be  very  intemperate,  they  may  be 
very  exceptionable,  they  may  be  very  unconstitutional ;  but 
until  something  shall  be  actually  done  or  attempted,  hinder- 
ing or  obstructing  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  or  injuring  those  employed  in  their  execution,  the 
officers  of  the  government  will  remain  vigilant  indeed,  and 
prepared  for  events,  but  without  any  positive  exercise  of 
authority.  It  is  most  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  the  return- 
ing good  sense  of  the  people  in  all  the  States,  and  an 
increase  of  harmony  and  brotherly  good- will  everywhere, 
may  prevent  the  necessity  of  resorting  to  the  exercise  of 
legal  authority ;  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  all  good  citizens  will 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  109 

ba  much,  more  inclined  to  reflect  on  the  value  of  the  Union 
and  the  benefits  which  it  has  conferred  upon  all,  than  to 
speculate  upon  impracticable  means  for  its  severance  or  dis- 
solution. No  State  legislation,  it  is  evident,  is  competent 
to  declare  such  severence  or  dissolution  —  the  people  of  no 
State  have  clothed  their  Legislature  with  any  such  authority  ; 
any  act  therefore  proclaiming  such  severence  by  a  Legisla- 
ture, would  be  merely  null  and  void  as  altogether  exceeding 
its  constitutional  powers.  No  State  was  brought  into  the 
Union  by  the  Legislature  thereof,  and  no  State  can  be  put 
out  of  the  Union  by  the  Legislature  thereof.  Doubtless  it  is 
to  be  admitted  that  revolution,  forcible  revolution,  may  pro- 
duce dismemberment  more  or  less  extensive ;  but  there  is  no 
power  on  earth  competent,  by  any  peaceable  or  recognized 
manner  of  proceeding,  to  discharge  the  consciences  of  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  from  the  duty  of  supporting  the 
Constitution.  The  government  may  be  overthrown,  or  the 
Union  broken  into  fragments  by  force  of  arms  or  force  of 
numbers,  but  neither  can  be  done  by  any  prescribed  form  or 
peaceable  existing  authority. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  HENRY  L.  DAWES. 

Gov.  Long  having  introduced  Hon.  Henry  L.  Dawes  as 
the  junior  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  and  then  having 
changed  the  title  to  senior,  Mr.  Dawes  said,  — 

It  is  quite  evident  that  his  Excellency  is  not  as  familiar 
with  the  Massachusetts  delegation  in  the  present  Congress  as 
he  is  sure  to  be  in  the  next,  or  he  would  not  have  fallen  into 
the  mistake  or  corrected  the  mistake  into  which  he  has  fallen. 
When  he  comes  to  know  that  delegation  better,  I  am  quite 
sure  he  will  call  upon  some  other  one  to  respond  to  the  senti- 
ment which  he  has  announced.  But  he  is  in  command  still, 
and  it  is  best  for  us  to  get  on  as  well  as  we  can  while  his  au- 


110  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

thority  lasts,  for  it  won't  last  long.  But  turning  from  these 
things  to  the  suggestions  of  this  occasion,  let  me  inquire  why 
we  are  here. 

The  multitude  which  gathers  around  the  tomb  of  Webster 
to-day  is  drawn  hither  by  differing  impulses.  Personal  at- 
tachment and  the  remembrance  of  charming  social  intercourse 
and  intimacy  bring  here  contemporaries.  Alas  that  they 
are  so  few  !  Others  are  here  to  pay  tribute  to  eloquence 
and  statesmanship  unequalled  among  men,  or  to  do  homage 
to  faculties  in  their  completeness  and  power  well-nigh  super- 
natural. But  those  upon  whom  devolve  those  public  duties 
in  the  halls  of  Congress,  in  the  discharge  of  which  he  per- 
formed his  greatest  work  and  achieved  his  most  enduring 
fame,  have  come  to  this,  the  statesman's  Mecca,  for  instruc- 
tion as  well  as  inspiration,  for  courage  and  for  light.  It  is 
not  that  they  are  making  a  pilgrimage  to  the  tomb  of  the 
greatest  of  all  statesmen  that  their  arm  and  purpose  are 
strengthened  by  this  visit.  Nor  does  the  legislator  of  to- 
day here  grow  self-confident  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  be- 
cause it  may  be  that  in  looking  back  over  half  a  century  of 
the  Republic  he  can  now  see  more  clearly  what  has  been 
than  this  statesman  saw  what  was  to  be.  But  those  called 
upon  to  solve  the  problems  now  before  us  do  become  bolder 
in  the  discharge  of  that  duty  when  they  find  that  one  has 
gone  before  them,  expounding  in  advance  of  them  all  the 
great  principles  of  constitutional  government  and  all  the 
general  measures  of  administration  which  tax  our  statesman- 
ship, and  that,  too,  with  a  profoundness  of  research  and  an 
illumination  and  power  of  argument  to  which  neither  the 
study  nor  the  experience  of  the  most  gifted  who  have  come 
after  him  have  added  anything.  In  the  forum  of  debate  he 
placed  the  nationalism  of  the  Republic  upon  a  foundation 
which  no  man  could  shake.  The  fallacies  which  assailed  it 
he   ground   into   impalpable  powder  which   no   man   could 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  Ill 

gather  up,  thirty  years  before  it  was  tried  in  the  fiery  ordeal 
cf  the  civil  war.  While  yet  the  statesman  of  to-day  was  a 
schcol-boy  or  a  puling  infant,  Webster  demonstrated  the 
principles  which  alone  are  the  basis  of  a  sound  and  stable 
currency.  His  burning  words  upon  appointments  to  the 
civil  service,  uttered  half  a  century  ago,  are  still  borrowed 
as  the  watchword  of  reform.  He  made  it  plain  that  pro- 
tection to  American  labor  is  national  prosperity,  and  from 
his  lips  this  people  first  learned  the  true  constitutional  scope 
of  internal  improvement.  These  questions  now,  as  then, 
confront  us,  and  in  grappling  with  them  he  stands  firmest 
who  plants  his  feet  upon  the  foundation  thus  laid  for  him. 
When  the  legislator  in  the  discharge  of  public  duty  shall 
come  to  where  the  ways  part,  and  is  compelled  to  follow 
either  the  dictates  of  his  own  judgment  or  the  opinions  of 
others,  if  he  doubt,  let  him  come  here  and  be  taught.  Let 
him  here  learn  that  with  whomsoever  else  he  may  differ, 
he  cannot  afford  to  differ  with  himself;  that  with  whomso- 
ever else  he  may  be  at  war,  he  must  be  at  peace  with  him- 
self, or  be  of  all  men  the  most  miserable.  If,  as  it  will 
sometimes  be  with  him,  he  shall  through  the  long  agony  of 
doubt  reach  at  last  the  luxury  of  a  conviction,  woe  be  to  him 
if  he  barter  that  luxury  for  the  approval  of  others,  be  they 
few  or  many.  It  is  his  own  judgment  and  conscience,  not 
other  men's,  that  he  must  obey.  If  he  cannot  win  self- 
respect,  he  can  win  no  other.  What  though  the  vindication 
be  thirty  years  in  coming  !  The  longer  it  is  waited  for,  the 
more  full  and  complete  it  will  be.  He  does  not  deserve  it 
who  cannot  wait  for  it. 

Thirty  years  of  the  life  of  this  Republic  have  wrought 
their  will  upon  men  and  measures  since  Mr.  Webster  closed 
his  eyes  upon  the  scenes  of  earth.  Were  it  permitted  him 
to  revisit  the  theatre  of  his  labors  and  triumphs  in  the  halls 
of  Congress,  and  to  look  again  upon  senates  and  cabinets, 


112  THE  WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

feeling  the  sources  and  compassing  the  boundaries  of  nation- 
al power,  what  a  revelation  would  break  upon  his  vision ! 
Not  a  contemporary  remains  in  the  public  service  to  greet 
him.  Rivals  and  rivalries,  antagonists  and  antagonisms,  are 
alike  stilled  in  the  grave.  But  the  danger-signals  which  he 
reared  upon  the  headlands,  little  heeded  till  the  storm  was 
upon  us,  are  not  forgotten  now  that  the  sky  is  cleared  and 
the  ship  safe  at  her  anchorage.  How  grand  the  procession 
of  events  which  is  passing  before  his  eyes  !  The  discord- 
ance of  States  which  he  had  prayed  never  to  see  has  indeed 
come,  and  the  clash  of  arms  and  spilling  of  brothers'  blood, 
from  which  he  had  recoiled,  are  terrible  realities  now.  But 
he  is  permitted  to  see  also,  rising  out  of  the  darkness  a 
more  glorious  dawn,  and  out  of  the  conflict  a  more  enduring 
peace,  whose  beneficence  gladdens  his  soul.  He  sees  a 
prosperity  and  power  never  dreamed  of,  crowning  a  new  life 
and  a  new  baptism  of  the  Republic  of  to-day,  saved,  regen- 
erated and  rehabilitated, — a  nation  altogether  free,  and 
thereby  altogether  "one  and  inseparable."  A  vision  this, 
second  only  to  that  which  "  prophets  waited  for  "  ! 


Gov.  Long  said  :  "  Unable  to  call  upon  all  the  New  England 
States,  I  call  upon  that  one  which  has,  among  other  honors, 
the  distinction  of  being  the  birthplace  of  Daniel  Webster ; 
and,  to  respond  for  that  State,  I  call  upon  His  Excellency 
Gov.  Bell." 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  CHARLES  H.  BELL. 

I  had  expected,  Mr.  President,  to  be  called  upon  to  answer 
only  for  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  as  the  birthplace  of 
the  great  man  whose  memory  we  honor  to-day,  and  I  was 
not  apprised  until  this  morning  that  the  greater  distinction 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL,.  113 

and  responsibility  were  to  be  mine,  of  speaking  for  the  other 
States  of  New  England  also. 

I  fear  that  I  shall  acquit  myself  very  imperfectly  of  the 
duty  assigned  me,  and  must  beg  to  apologize  for  all  my 
shortcomings,  in  advance.  But  I  have  at  least  the  satisfac- 
tion of  knowing  that  the  esteem  in  which  the  memory  of 
Webster  is  held  by  New  Hampshire  is  shared  by  all  New 
England,  and  that  when  I  utter  her  sentiments,  I  express 
equally  those  of  her  sister  States. 

•  It  is  at  once  an  easy  and  a  difficult  thing  to  speak  of  Daniel 
Webster :  easy,  since  there  are  so  many  traits  of  his  charac- 
ter, and  so  many  incidents  of  his  career,  that  furnish  matter 
for  speech ;  difficult,  because  one  cannot  but  realize  how  in- 
adequate is  all  that  ordinary  man  can  say,  to  do  justice  to 
his  many  great  qualities,  and  to  portray  him  in  his  true 
proportions. 

Webster,  more  than  any  other  of  the  notable  men  whose 
lives  have  constituted  the  history  of  the  Republic,  possessed 
a  combination  of  elements  of  greatness  which  are  seldom 
found,  except  singly.  Most  of  the  leaders  of  men  are  de- 
scribable  in  a  word  or  a  phrase.  They  are  distinguished 
from  their  fellows  by  only  a  single  dimension  of  superiority. 
Thus  we  characterize  one  as  an  orator,  another  as  a  jurist, 
and  a  third  as  a  warrior,  and  thereby  define  the  one  essential 
quality  of  each  in  which  he  excels.  In  other  respects  they 
are  on  a  par  with  ordinary  humanity. 

But  Webster,  as  he  surpassed  other  men  not  simply  in 
one,  but  in  divers  departments  of  capacity  and  attainment, 
cannot  be  disposed  of  in  a  paragraph.  Every  path  of  use- 
fulness and  distinction  which  he  trod  needs  to  be  explored 
and  illustrated  in  order  to  depict  him  justly ;  and  then  the 
hand  of  a  master  is  requisite  to  blend  the  several  constituents 
of  the  picture  into  a  harmonious  whole. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  consider  some  of  the  more  important 


114  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

relations  which  he  sustained  to  the  community,  that  we  may 
the  better  judge  what  station  among  men  should  rightfully 
be  accorded  him. 

As  a  lawyer,  he  held  a  place  second  to  no  other.  Trained 
in  the  school  of  Mason  and  the  other  expert  practitioners  of 
the  New  Hampshire  bar  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  he 
early  made  himself  a  proficient  in  the  technicalities  of  the 
profession.  And  when  his  later  experience  brought  him  to 
the  consideration  of  larger  questions,  when  principles  were 
to  be  discussed  in  lieu  of  precedents,  his  discriminating  and 
logical  intellect,  saturated  with  the  very  spirit  of  the  law,  led 
him  unerringly  to  just  conclusions.  And  I  suppose  it  hardly 
admits  of  question  that  no  American  jurist,  except  it  may  be 
Marshall  alone,  dealt  with  the  great  problems  arising  out  of 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  land,  with  the  confidence,  the 
ease  and  the  mastery  of  Daniel  Webster. 

In  like  manner,  if  we  regard  him  as  an  orator,  he  stands 
easily  in  the  foremost  rank.  There  have  been  public  speakers 
whose  discourse  warmed  and  moved  popular  assemblies,  as 
the  wind  SAvays  the  field  of  ripening  grain,  but  whose  words, 
when  read  in  the  cooler  atmospheie  of  the  closet,  are  found 
to  have  spent  their  force,  and  become  mere  sounding  verbi- 
age. And  there  have  been  others  whose  harangues  had  no 
effect  in  the  delivery,  save  to  empty  the  seats  of  hearers,  but 
which  light  up  the  printed  page  with  the  fire  of  eloquence, 
and  have  secured  immortality  for  their  authors. 

It  was  Webster's  happy  gift  to  combine  the  best  qualities 
of  both  classes.  He  was  a  master  of  speech.  Our  language 
contains  no  compositions  more  harmonious,  more  lucid  and 
more  forcible  in  style  than  those  of  Webster.  And  his  man- 
ner was  worthy  of  his  matter.  His  earnest  soul  shone  forth 
in  his  imposing  presence,  his  piercing  eye,  his  resonant  voice, 
his  impressive  gesticulation.  He  convinced  and  delighted 
his  immediate  audience,  no  less  than  his  subsequent  readers. 


THE  WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL .  '  \  115 

The  speeches  by  which  he  won  the  verdicts  of  juries^  the 
judgment  of  courts,  the  resolutions  of  Senates  and  the 
plaudits  of  assemblies,  are  the  same  which  those  who  appre- 
ciate genuine  eloquence  have  perused  with  ever-increasing 
admiration  since,  and  which  critics  hold  up  as  models  for 
imitation  to-day.  Judging  by  every  proper  standard  of 
oratory,  we  find  no  superior' of  Webster  in  our  history. 

As  a  statesman,  a  legislator,  a  diplomatist,  who  of  our 
ablest  public  agents  has  rendered  more  substantial  benefits 
to  the  country  than  he,  or  has  sustained  the  national  dignity 
and  honor  more  worthily  ?  To  recapitulate  his  achievements 
to  this  audience  is  needless ;  they  are  familiar  as  the  national 
history  which  records  them. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  Webster  in  his  public  capacity, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  was  his  devotion  to  his  Avhole  country. 
True  he  loved  the  State  of  his  nativity  with  the  affection  of  a 
child  for  its  mother  ;  true  he  loved  the  State  of  his  adoption, 
which  holds  and  sacredly  guards  his  ashes ;  but  he  was  first 
and  most  of  all  an  American  citizen.  The  sense  of  nation- 
ality was  strong  within  him ;  his  sympathies  and  aspirations 
and  labors  were  co-extensive  with  the  limits  of  his  country. 
From  his  earliest  public  appearance  he  manifested  a  deep 
and  abiding  veneration  for  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  and 
for  the  system  of  government  which  they  founded.  "  Fidel- 
ity to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union"  was  the  watchword 
of  his  youth,  and  the  motto  of  his  lifetime.  It  tinged  his 
views  and  influenced  his  conduct  throughout  his  whole  career. 

He  saw  the  nation  involved  in  two  successive  wars,  neither 
of  which  met  his  approval.  From  a  sense  of  duty  he  de- 
clared his  opposition  to  them,  but  he  did  not  allow  that  oppo- 
sition to  reach  the  point  of  becoming  factious.  He  loved  his 
native  land  too  well  to  wish  to  trail  her  banner  in  the  dust, 
for  the  mere  reason  that  in  his  opinion  the  cause  for  which 
she  engaged  in  hostilities  was  insufficient. 


116  THE  WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

In  the  days  when  South  Carolina  attempted  to  put  in 
practice  the  fatal  doctrine  of  nullification,  President  Jackson 
stood  up  manfully  for  the  integrity  of  the  Union  and  the 
supremacy  of  the  Constitution,  and  in  so  doing  placed  him- 
self in  direct  antagonism  to  no  insignificant  portion  of  his  own 
political  party.  A  less  magnanimous  and  patriotic  opponent 
than  Webster  would  have  exulted  over  the  dissension  in  the 
hostile  camp,  and  left  the  contestants  to  extricate  themselves 
from  their  dilemma  as  best  they  could.  But  he,  true  to  his 
life-long  convictions,  and  for  the  love  he  bore  to  his  whole 
country,  nobly  extended  his  moral  support  to  the  President  in 
enforcing  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  land. 

And  his  attitude  in  the  trying  hours  of  1850  was  taken  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  same  cardinal  principle  of  his  lifetime.  He, 
more  clearly  than  any  of  his  contemporaries  in  the  North, 
foresaw  the  troubles  of  the  future.  He  knew  that  disunion 
and  war  were  inevitable,  unless  some  change  could  be  effect- 
ed in  the  attitude  of  the  two  great  divisions  of  the  nation  to- 
wards one  another.  And  to  bring  about  more  cordial  relations, 
and  avert  the  dreaded  catastrophe,  he  was  willing  to  concede 
much. 

By  many  his  apprehensions  were  pronounced  exaggerated 
or  insincere,  and  he  was  cried  out  upon  as  an  alarmist,  and 
a  truckler  to  the  South.  But  they  who  thus  censured  his 
course,  themselves  realized,  eleven  years  later,  how  just  were 
his  prognostications  ;  and  then,  when  they  saw  that  civil  war 
was  the  sole  and  certain  alternative,  they  were  ready  to  sur- 
render much  more  than  he  had  ever  dreamed  of  yielding. 

One  special  debt  of  gratitude  which  the  nation  owes  to 
Webster  should  never  be  suffered  to  pass  out  of  remem- 
brance. Knowing  better  than  any  other  man  the  true  tem- 
per of  both  sections  of  the  country,  and  realizing  the  mortal 
peril  that  menaced  the  existence  of  the  Eepublic,  he  did  all 
that  lay  in  man's  power  to  strengthen  the  loyal  masses  for 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  117 

the  ordeal.  It  was  his  eloquent  periods  which  impressed 
upon  the  public  mind  the  inestimable  value  of  our  free  insti- 
tutions ;  it  was  his  masterly  refutation  of  the  specious  doc- 
trine of  nullification  and  secession  that  constituted  the  strong- 
hold of  the  champions  of  the  Union  in  1861.  The  principles 
which  he  established  preserved  the  government  from  destruc- 
tion then,  and  will,  we  devoutly  hope,  render  it  perpetual. 

Great  men,  not  a  few,  have  arisen  in  the  land  :  has  any 
other  one  been  great  in  so  many  ways  as  Webster  was? 
Our  country  has  been  fortunate  in  many  useful  public  ser- 
vants :  has  any  other  rendered  services  of  equal  importance 
with  his  ? 

We  have  had  Washington,  serene  amidst  alarms,  of  dis- 
cretion and  judgment,  unsurpassed  ;  Hamilton,  an  originator, 
uniting  the  bold  theories  of  youth  with  the  practical  skill 
that  belongs  to  maturity,  as  the  orange  bears  blossoms  and 
fruit  together;  Jefferson,  an  investigator,  the  first  to  com- 
prehend and  evoke  the  latent  genius  of  Democracy  ;  Lincoln, 
the  embodiment  of  justice  and  sound  sense,  his  pulse  synchro- 
nous with  the  beating  of  the  great  loyal  heart  of  the  nation  ; 
and  others,  not  less  eminent  and  patriotic.  Comparisons 
might,  perhaps,  be  out  of  place  here  ;  but  it  is  not  too  much 
to  claim  for  Daniel  Wesbter  that  he  loved  his  country  as 
well  as  any  of  these  ;  that  he  gave  her  as  loyal  and  disinter- 
ested service  :  that  he  contributed  as  greatly  in  his  day  and 
way  to  her  grandeur  and  glory  ;  and  that  —  the  petty  conten- 
tions of  his  time  happily  forgotten  —  his  name  will  go  down 
to  posterity  with  equal  honor  and  benediction. 


At  this  point  President  Arthur,  Gov.  Long,  Mayor  Green, 
and  the  other  members  of  the  Presidential  party,  were 
obliged  to  retire,  and  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen  presided  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  the  exercises.     He  called  upon  Hon. 


118  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

B.  W.  Harris  to  speak  for  the  national  House  of  Repressnta- 
tives.  It  was  found  that  Mr.  Harris  had  retired,  and  Mr. 
Allen  said :  "  We  had  hoped  to  hear  from  the  head  of  the 
city  of  Boston." 

ADDRESS  OF  HOK  SAMUEL  A.  GREEX, 
Mayor  of  Boston. 

I  thank  you,  Mr.  President,  for  your  kind  mention  of  the 
municipality  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent.  The  city 
of  Boston  is  in  hearty  sympathy  with  these  exercises  of  the 
Webster  Historical  Society.  The  statesman  whose  life  you 
commemorate  to-day  was,  during  many  years,  a  citizen  of 
Boston  as  well  as  of  Marshfield,  and  any  services  touching 
his  memory  appeal  as  deeply  and  as  strongly  to  the  city  as 
to  the  town.  A  generation  has  come  and  gone  since  Mr. 
Webster's  death,  and  few  people  remember  his  outward 
appearance ;  but  though  his  manly  form  has  passed  away, 
the  great  principles  for  which  he  stood  and  struggled  are 
now  recognized  throughout  the  nation,  and  bear  witness  to 
the  wisdom  of  his  ideas.  His  views  were  as  broad  as  the 
whole  country,  and  took  in  the  interests  of  every  section  of 
the  land.  His  name  and  fame  rest  on  a  solid  foundation, 
and  the  calumnies  of  his  critics  will  break  as  vainly  on  his 
character  as  the  surging  seas  on  the  rock-bound  coast  of  his 
native  New  England.  The  lesson  of  this  day,  Mr.  President, 
will  be  poorly  learned,  the  inspiration  of  this  hour  will  be 
lost,  if  they  do  not  teach  us  to  study  the  example  and  to 
imitate  the  virtues  of  the  great  expounder  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  119 

ADDRESS  OF  REV.  EBEXEZER  ALDEN. 

Some  seven  years  after  Mr.  Webster's  memorable  address 
at  Plymouth,  with  his  family,  he  first  found  his  way  to 
Marshfield.  He  boarded,  that  summer  and  for  two  or  three 
seasons,  with  Capt.  John  Thomas,  in  the  old  colonial  man- 
sion which  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  became  his  country 
home. 

In  an  address  to  his  "  friends  and  neighbors  "  on  the  occa- 
sion of  a  public  reception  a  few  months  before  his  death,  he 
said,  "Many,  when  they  come  down  through  these  pine 
woods  and  over  these  sandy  hills  to  see  us,  wonder  what 
drew  Mr.  Webster  to  Marshfield.  Why,  gentlemen,  I  tell 
them  it  was  partly  good  sense,  but  more  good  fortune." 
Here  he  found  a  retired  spot,  shut  out  from  the  busy  world ; 
a  place  well  situated  for  his  favorite  recreation  of  fishing, 
both  in  the  brooks  and  in  the  bay ;  lands  which,  though 
sterile  and  sandy,  were  capable  of  improvement,  as  the  thou- 
sands of  trees  which  he  planted  and  the  green  acres  which 
he  left  behind  him  attested;  and  what  was  far  more,  a  kind 
people  of  the  "twenty  years"  among  whom  he  said,  "Happy 
have  they  been  to  me  and  mine  ;  for  during  all  that  period  I 
know  not  of  one  unkind  thing  done,  or  an  unkind  word 
spoken,  to  me  or  those  that  are  near  and  dear  to  me."  Mr. 
Webster's  personal  magnetism  secured  for  him  the  warm 
affection  and  regard  of  those  immediately  about  him,  the 
family  of  whom  he  bought  his  house  and  the  neighbors 
whom  he  employed  upon  his  farm.  To  this  day  those  of 
them  who  survive,  love  and  revere  his  memory. 

Mr.  Webster  identified  himself  with  this  people.  In  the 
early  part  of  his  residence  here,  habitually,  though  not  so 
regularly  in  his  last  years,  he  attended  worship  in  the  old 
Pilgrim  Church  in  the  neighborhood.  Though  he  appears 
never  to  have  transferred  his  relation  from  the  church  in 


120  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

Salisbury,  N.H.,  which  he  joined  when  a  young  man,  for  a 
number  of  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  First  Parish  in 
this  town,  and  through  life  cordially  gave  it  his  aid  in  the 
support  of  the  institutions  of  the  gospel. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  remembrances  of  Mr.  Web- 
ster is  his  selection  of  the  ancient  Winslow  burying-ground 
as  the  place  for  his  tomb.  Mount  Auburn  would  have  been 
honored  had  he  chosen  that  as  his  last  resting-place.  He 
preferred  to  be  associated  in  after  years  with  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  the  elements  of  whose  character  entered  so  largely 
into  his  own.  He  lies  near  the  site  of  the  thatched  meeting- 
house in  which  Edward  Winslow  worshipped  God,  and  not 
far  from  the  tomb  in  which  are  the  mortal  remains  of  the 
first  child  born  to  the  Pilgrims  of  the  "  Mayflower,"  the  first 
mother,  who  was  also  the  first  bride,  of  the  Plymouth  colony, 
and  the  first  Governor  who  was  a  native  of  our  country.  His 
epitaph  will  carry  down  to  posterity  his  profound  reverence 
for  God,  his  testimony  to  the  divine  reality  of  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  deep  conviction  that  the  only  religion 
which  is  vital  is  that  of  inward  experience. 


PRESIDEXT  BAPvTLETT'S  ADDRESS. 

Mr.  Allen  then  introduced  President  S.  C.  Bartlett,  of 
Dartmouth  College,  who  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

Dartmouth  College  has  never  been  slow  to  pay  a  tribute  to 
her  greatest  son.  Some  thirty  years  ago,  almost  immediate- 
ly upon  his  death,  she  summoned  to  her  aid  the  most  brilliant 
of  all  her  alumni,  and  embalmed  the  memory  of  Webster  in 
the  matchless  words  of  Rufus  Choate.  On  his  centennial 
birthday  in  January  last,  her  widely  scattered  sons  gathered 
in  the  several  centres  —  Boston,  New  York,  Cincinnati,  Chi- 
cago, Minneapolis  —  to  do  him  honor.     At  the  annual  com- 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  121 

mencement  in  June,  they  came  together  from  the  East  and 
the  West  to  the  college  halls  to  listen  to  an  eloquent  voice 
from  the  South  in  his  praise.  And  two  days  ago  the  board  of 
trustees  met  in  the  chief  city  of  his  native  State  and  voted  to 
hold  up  to  all  future  generations  of  students  the  recollection, 
of  his  illustrious  example  and  his  special  tastes,  by  establishing 
the  Daniel  Webster  professorship  of  the  Latin  language  and 
literature. 

Dartmouth  College  knows  him  well.  She  knew  him  first 
in  the  youth  not  sixteen  years  of  age,  with  the  tears  of  grati- 
tude to  his  self-denying  father  scarcely  dry  upon  his  cheeks, 
fresh  from  the  counsels  and  instructions  of  a  country  pastor, 
hastily,  and  by  his  own  testimony,  "miserably  prepared,  both 
in  Greek  and  Latin,"  and  by  the  testimony  of  his  classmates 
"through  his  collegiate  course,  improving  in  excellence  as 
time  advanced."  The  loving  survivors  of  his  classmates  and 
friends,  fifty  years  later,  drew  so  well  the  portrait  of  the 
youthful  student,  that  he  stands  before  us  unmistakable  and 
lifelike.  Let  me  present  to  you  the  picture  in  the  very 
words  they  used.  Behold,  then,  the  young  undergraduate, 
already  holding  men  by  "those  black  piercing  eyes,  peering 
out  under  dark,  overhanging  brows;"  the  solemn  tones 
of  his  voice  on  special  occasions,  the  mingled  "modesty"  and 
"dignity  of  his  mien,"  and  the  "earnestness  with  which  he 
threw  his  whole  soul  into  his  subject."  He  stands  before  us 
in  character  "  unimpeachable,"  "  constant  at  the  recitation  and 
always  well  prepared,"  "good  in  all  the  branches,"  "pecul- 
iarly industrious,"  though  mastering  his  studies  "with  ease," 
"distinguished  for  the  uncommon  extent  of  his  knowledge," 
"his  thorough  investigation,"  the  "vigor "and  "fulness"  of 
his  thinking,  and  "the  flow  of  his  eloquence,"  —  so  pre-emi- 
nent that  "no  one  of  his  class  was  ever  spoken  of  as  second 
to  him,"  accounted,  indeed,  "the  most  remarkable  man  in 
college."     We  can  stand  even  with  Elihu  Smith  by  his  side 


122  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

as  "he  received  his  degree  with  a  graceful  bow  ;  "  and,  two 
months  later,  with  Daniel  Abbott,  Ave  shake  hands  with  him 
on  the  east  bank  of  the  Merrimac,  as  he  sets  off  "  on  horse- 
back, with  his  wardrobe  and  his  library  in  his  saddle-bags," 
to  his  magnificent  career,  then  all  unknown,  now  known  to 
all.     That  boy  was  father  of  that  man. 

Dartmouth  College  was  fortunate  in  receiving  Daniel  Web- 
ster within  her  walls ;  or,  if  you  please,  in  possessing  the 
qualities  and  conditions  that  drew  him  thither.  But  she  can 
only  claim  to  have  helped  in  some  degree  the  unfolding  of 
his  extraordinary  powers.  His  mind  was  then  as  unique  as 
his  massive  head.  It  was  no  'prentice  pupil  sent  to  drudge 
through  some  routine  drill :  it  was  the  young  master  come  to 
gather  up  the  implements  of  his  mighty  art.  No  institution 
made  Daniel  Webster  :  he  was  himself  an  institution.  And 
yet  shall  I  say  that,  though  an  exceptional  alumnus,  he  was, 
in  some  respects,  a  representative  alumnus,  showing  forth, 
though  to  an  almost  ideal  extent,  the  mental  force  and  direct- 
ness, the  breadth  and  clearness,  the  industry  and  practical- 
ness, toward  which  the  long  line  of  her  alumni  have  steadily 
aimed  and  moved. 

His  Alma  Mater  did  for  her  foster  child  what  she  could ; 
and  in  the  early  prime  of  his  powers  he  did  for  her  what  he 
could,  perhaps  what  no  other  man  could.  She  had  given 
him  her  literary  honors  :  he  brought  his  professional  honors 
and  laid  them  at  her  feet.  His  first  national  glory  became 
her  glory  and  defence.  Who  does  not  know  the  story  of 
the  little  college  struggling  in  the  grasp  of  the  State  ;  of  the 
case  transferred  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
and  regarded  by  one  of  its  judges  beforehand  as  hardly  a 
case  at  all ;  of  that  masterly  argument  to  which  Judge  Story 
listened  "the  first  hour  with  astonishment,  the  second  with 
delight,  and  the  third  with  conviction  ;"  of  the  orator  waxing 
warm  and  tender  at  the  last,  till  his  voice  choked  with  emo- 


THE  WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  123 

tion,  and  many  around  were  in  tears ;  and  the  interval  of 
silence  that  fell  like  a  curtain  on  the  audience  as  he  closed? 
He  had  fused  his  great  intellect  and  great  heart  into  one  great 
argument  for  the  good  mother  that  he  loved,  and  the  fiery 
stream,  like  some  lava-tide,  had  swept  all  before  it  as  it 
rolled  on  its  way.  But,  till  the  decision  came,  he  still  bore 
"a  load  much  heavier,"  he  said,  than  he  "was  accustomed  to 
near."  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  letter  of  his,  written  in  the 
interval  (July  27,  1818),  showing  alike  his  modesty  and  his 
magnanimity.  "I  send  you,"  he  wrote  to  his  friend  McGaw, 
who  had  asked  it,  "with  great  cheerfulness,  a  sketch  of  our 
views  of  the  case  in  the  question  about  Dartmouth  College. 
I  have  never  allowed  myself  to  indulge  any  great  hopes  of 
success  ;  but,  if  even  a  few  such  men  as  Judge  Wilde  should 
think  that  we  had  made  out  our  case,  it  would  repay  the 
labor.  If  you  should  think  there  is  any  merit  in  the  man- 
ner of  the  argument,  you  must  recollect  that  it  is  drawn 
from  materials  furnished  by  Judge  Smith  and  Mr.  Mason,  as 
well  as  from  the  little  contributed  by  myself."  Six  months 
later  he  could  write  that  memorable  letter  beginning,  "All  is 
safe  and  certain."  The  decision  had  been  rendered,  which, 
in  the  words  of  Everett,  "  was  a  battle  fought  and  a  victory 
gained  for  every  college  and  university,  for  every  academy 
and  school,  in  the  United  States  endowed  with  property  or 
possessed  of  chartered  rights,"  "the  doctrines  of  which"  — 
so  said  Chief  Justice  Waite  in  1879  —  "have  become  so  im- 
bedded in  the  jurisprudence  of  the  United  States  as  to  make 
them,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  part  of  the  Constitution." 
Even  in  defending  the  college  that  he  loved,  he  was  then  an 
expounder  of  the  Constitution,  which  he  loved  better  still. 

And,  as  he  never  forgot  the  friends  of  his  youth,  so  he 
never  forgot  the  institution  of  his  early  training.  Within 
the  present  year  there  has  come  a  reminiscence  from  the 
West  —  a  voice  from  the  past  —  of  Webster  in  his   later 


124  THE   WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

years  saying  in  substance  to  his  fellow-alumnus,  a  wealthy 
congressman :  "  I  once  did  for  the  college  what  I  could  with 
my  legal  skill,  and  I  charge  you  to  do  for  her  what  you  can 
with  your  wealth."  He  loved  her  thus  to  the  end  with  an 
affection  so  warm,  and  was  bound  to  her  with  ties  so  strong 
—  being  rightly  named  by  Judge  Hopkinson,  her  second 
founder  —  that  we  may  not  inaptly  say,  adapting  his  own 
famous  words  —  Daniel  Webster  and  Dartmouth  College,  in 
influence  and  history,  "  now  and  forever,  one  and  insepara- 
ble." 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  GEO.  B.  LOEING. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

President  Bartlett  has  spoken  in  a  tender  and  affectionate 
manner  of  one  of  the  great  sons  of  Dartmouth,  over  which 
institution  he  has  the  honor  to  preside.  That  he  should 
have  clone  this  with  the  proudest  emotion  is  natural,  when 
we  remember  that  Daniel  Webster  is  the  great  alumnus  of 
that  ancient  college.  That  he  should  have  done  it  with  the 
warmest  emotion  is  natural,  when  we  remember  that  from 
the  lips  of  that  great  son  of  a  distinguished  Alma  Mater, 
there  fell  the  most  eloquent  and  touching  appeal  ever  made 
for  the  very  existence  of  a  maternal  institution  of  learning, 
recorded  in  all  the  long  line  of  oratorical  triumphs.  The 
conclusion  of  that  masterly  argument  has  made  Dartmouth 
College  radiant  with  tender  associations.  It  was  in  her  de- 
fence that  the  voice  of  every  faithful  and  affectionate  alumnus 
was  uttered  in  behalf  of  his  Alma  Mater.  When  Daniel 
Webster,  amidst  the  solemn  and  tearful  stillness  of  the 
highest  court  in  the  land,  moved  as  it  was  by  his  argument 
and  by  his  eloquence  to  tears,  exclaimed,  "Sir,  I  know  not 
how  others  may  feel,  but  for  myself,  when  I  see  my  Alma 
Mater  surrounded,  like  Caesar  in  the  senate  house,  by  those 


THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  125 

who  are  reiterating  stab  after  stab,  I  would  not,  for  this 
right  hand,  have  her  turn  to  me  and  say,  *  Et  tu  quoque,  mi 
fiW  —  and  thou  too,  my  son!"  he  expressed  the  emotion 
which  every  scholar  feels  towards  the  spot  where  his  mind 
was  directed  along  the  fragrant  walks  of  knowledge,  and 
where  his  rising  powers  first  felt  the  sweet  influences  which 
fill  the  Academic  groves. 

And  now  I  take  Daniel  Webster  and  bring  him  before  you 
as  an  alumnus  of  that  college  which  made  him  her  adopted 
son,  and  which,  in  taking  to  her  bosom  this  illustrious  child 
of  Dartmouth,  felt  that  she  secured  to  herself  as  high  an 
honor  in  adopting  him  as  she  did  in  sending  forth  that  long 
line  of  illustrious  statesmen,  lawyers,  jurists,  theologians, 
who  have  made  her  history  the  admiration  of  the  literary 
world.  I  speak  for  Harvard  here,  not  because  I  think  my- 
self worthy  to  perform  this  service.  There  are  those  here, 
and  have  been  this  day,  who  stand  foremost  on  her  distin- 
guished and  honorable  roll,  and  who,  as  the  leading  scholars 
of  the  classes  in  which  they  were  graduated,  represent  her 
power  in  the  cultivation  of  the  human  mind.  I  do  my  ser- 
vice, then,  sir,  with  many  misgivings,  conscious  that  my 
voice  is  feeble  beside  theirs,  and  that  I  can  in  no  way  respond 
as  would  the  President  of  that  illustrious  University,  were  he 
here  to  discharge  this  duty  which  has  fallen  from  his  shoul- 
ders upon  my  own,  with  his  silver  tongue  and  his  powerful 
oratory,  pleading  for  the  prosperity  and  rejoicing  in  the 
honorable  record  of  the  great  institution  over  which  he  pre- 
sides. 

I  speak,  then,  as  an  humble  son  of  Harvard,  and  I  desire 
in  that  capacity  to  present  to  your  minds  the  relations  which 
Daniel  Webster  held  to  that  great  college  during  his  majestic 
career  as  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts,  and  as  the  foremost 
statesman  of  the  Republic  in  his  day.  He  was  for  a  long 
time  a  member  of  the  government  of  Harvard,  called  by  her 


126  THE    AVEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

into  intimate  relations  with  herself,  as  she  has  so  often  called 
with  the  warmest  cordiality  the  great  intellects  which  have 
come  within  her  cognizance.  She  accepted  Daniel  Webster  as 
her  friend  and  ally  and  son  ;  she  accepted  with  the  same  spirit 
the  great  Agassiz,  to  teach  the  world  that  for  all  great  intel- 
lectual powers  she  had  a  warm  and  affectionate  heart.  He 
sat  at  her  council  board  to  give  the  weight  of  his  great  name 
to  the  dignified  presence  she  maintained  before  the  world, 
and  the  salutary  influence  of  his  instinctive  love  of  sound 
learning  as  the  sure  foundation  of  the  Republic.  And  when 
the  time  arrived  for  the  celebration  of  the  second  centennial 
anniversary  of  her  foundation,  she  summoned  him  among  the 
great  and  £ood  of  the  land  who  gathered  around  her  hearth- 
stone  and  called  her  mother.  I  remember  it  well,  that  most 
distinguished  assembly  of  all  goodly  companies  which  ever 
gathered  within  the  borders  of  this  ancient  Commonwealth. 
It  was  the  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  that  college  which 
was  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  founders  of  the  State,  the 
conditores  impeviorum  who  framed  our  free  institutions. 
Men  had  assembled  there,  the  old  and  the  young,  to  worship 
once  more  at  the  altar  which  they  loved  so  well.  There  in 
that  illustrious  assembly,  gathered  around  the  festive  board,  sat 
Josiah  Quincy,  the  wise  and  honored  President  of  the  Univer- 
sity, the  orator  of  the  occasion,  the  historian  of  Harvard,  the 
incorruptible  magistrate,  the  son  of  that  inspired  and  inspiring 
orator  of  the  Revolution,  who,  dying  as  he  approached  his 
native  shores  on  his  return  from  his  patriotic  mission  to  the 
mother  country,  bearing  within  his  soul  his  divine  love  of 
freedom,  bequeathed  to  his  boy  his  treasured  books,  and  his 
solemn  injunctions  to  be  a  faithful  and  patriotic  citizen,  and 
an  obedient  and  devoted  son  to  his  bereaved  mother. 

There,  too,  sat  Edward  Everett,  the  most  brilliant  and 
accomplished  orator  of  that  day  or  of  any  day  of  our  Repub- 
lic, —  he  who  has  left  for  the  young  men  of  this  country  a 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  127 

legacy  of  literature  which  should  be  cherished  and  studied 
for  all  time  to  come,  as  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Republic 
has  told  us  the  volumes  of  Webster  should  be  cherished,  for 
doctrine  and  reproof  and  for  the  strengthening  of  the  massive 
structure  of  the  government  under  which  we  live,  —  to  cele- 
brate, as  he  said  in  his  fascinating  address  as  presiding  officer 
of  the  dinner,  "the  birthday  of  the  genial  mother  of  our 
spirits,  who  folded  us  in  her  arms  and  carried  us  in  her 
bosom*  and  not  us  alone,  but  all  who  for  two  hundred 
years  have  drawn  the  pure  milk  of  intellectual  life  and  truth 
from  her  maternal  breast."  With  what  enthusiasm  he  reT 
minded  us  also  that  "  within  the  short  space  of  twenty-three 
years  there  were  graduated  at  Harvard  six  men  who  exer- 
cised an  influence  over  the  country's  destinies  which  no  time 
shall  outlive  !  Within  that  brief  period  there  went  forth 
from  yonder  walls,  James  Otis,  John  Hancock,  Joseph 
Warren,  Josiah  Quincy,  besides  Samuel  and  John  Adams 
—  *  (jeminos  duofalmina  belli.9" 

There  sat  the  venerable  and  scholarly  and  pure-minded 
John  Thornton  Kirkland,  the  beloved  ex-President  of  the 
University,  who  from  his  warm  and  genial  heart  declared, 
as  he  addressed  that  great  audience  with  a  faltering  voice 
from  which  the  old-time  music  had  not  yet  died  out,  "  that 
the  necessary  expenses  of  a  liberal  education  should  be  re- 
duced, that  the  stream  of  knowledge  may  be  open  to  all  who 
will  drink." 

There  sat  John  Gorham  Palfrey,  the  scholarly  divine  of 
that  day,  the  statesman  and  brilliant  and  philosophical  his- 
torian of  a  later  day,  impressing  upon  those  who  listened  to 
his  sound  and  admirable  speech  the  inseparable  union  of 
"learning  and  religion,  twin  sisters,  united  in  their  origin, 
united  in  their  imperial  sway  over  man's  higher  nature." 

There  sat  Joseph  Story,  just  then  in  the  height  of  his  great 
judicial  career,  the  learned  law  student  and  author  of  the 


128  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL 

land,  the  profound,  patriotic,  liberal  jurist  and  interpreter 
of  the  Constitution,  extending  a  kindly  greeting,  and  stretch- 
ins:  out  his  hand  of  fraternal  love  to  the  universities  of 
old  England. 

There,  too,  sat  Lemuel  Shaw,  —  of  whom  I  once  heard  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  of  the  bar  of  this  country  say,  that  he 
"  had  made  more  law  than  any  man  of  his  time  in  America," — 
the  pride  of  Massachusetts  jurisprudence,  who,  true  to  the 
mistress. whom  he  loved  and  honored  through  a  long  and 
pure  and  dignified  and  learned  life,  gave  as  his  sentiment  on 
the  occasion,  "  The  law  :  nurtured  by  an  enlightened  philoso- 
phy, invigorated  by  sound  learning,  and  embellished  by  elegant 
literature,  the  most  efficient  support  of  constitutional  liberty." 

And  there  sat  Peleg  Sprague,  the  lofty  descendant  of  the 
best  of  the  Pilgrims,  the  great  Senator  of  one  State,  that  of 
his  adoption,  the  great  jurist  of  another  State,  that  of  his 
birth,  who,  after  having  shed  glory  and  honor  upon  the  child 
of  Massachusetts  as  a  Senator,  shed  still  more  glory  and  hon- 
or upon  his  native  State  as  one  of  the  great  jurists  of  the 
land.  I  can  see  him  now  with  his  manly  port,  his  glowing 
eye,  his  Roman  face,  paying  his  warm  tribute  to  the  virtues 
of  his  ancestors  and  declaring  of  the  Pilgrim  mothers  "as 
Cicero  declared  of  letters,  ' 'Adolescentiam  alunt,  senectutem 
oblectant,  secundas  res  ornant,  adversis  solatium  prcebent, 
delectant  domi.'" 

John  Collins  Warren,  the  son  of  the  great  surgeon  of  the 
Revolution,  the  nephew  of  the  martyr  at  Bunker  Hill,  the 
imperial  surgeon  of  his  own  time,  modestly  and  ardently 
expressed  " gratitude  to  the  noble  country  of  our  fathers." 
And  Hugh  S.  Legare,  of  South  "Carolina,  standing  on  the  soil 
of  Massachusetts,  and  remembering  the  bond  that  bound 
these  powerful  States  together  in  the  days  of  trial,  and  re- 
membering moreover  the  deep  and  unquenchable  sympathy 
which  existed  between  the  Huguenots  and  the  Puritans  in 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  129 

their  love  of  religious  liberty  and  their  search  for  it  on  the 
wild  shores  of  an  unexplored  continent,  exclaimed  with  the 
fervid  eloquence  of  the  native  State,  as  the  fraternal  sentiment 
he  would  contribute  to  the  occasion,  "  The  fathers  of  New 
England  !  like  the  wisest  of  all  men,  they  sought  wisdom 
first,  and  with  wisdom  they  found  all  the  blessings  of  exist- 
ence." 

And  I  think  no  one  of  all  that  throng  could  ever  forget 
the  uprising  of  the  young  lyrist  of  America  who  appeared 
there  almost  for  the  first  time  on  a  public  occasion,  just  re- 
turned from  Europe  with  the  culture  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
youthful  scholar,  and  sang  with  a  superba  audacia  as  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  wits  and  advocates  of  that  day  called  it, 
his  song  "  When  the  Puritans  came  over,"  having  just  then 
commenced  a  career  which  has  made  the  name  of  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  a  household  word  throughout  the  land 
wherever  refined  wit,  and  pure  sentiment,  and  generous 
appeal,  and  patriotic  fervor,  and  honorable  service  are  appre- 
ciated, and  who  has  just  closed  a  distinguished  service  as 
one  of  the  cultivated  teachers  of  American  youth  in  the 
walks  of  sound  and  reliable  science,  retiring  to  private  life 
and  "  delightful  studies  "  with  the  kindly  benediction  of  the 
"  troops  of  friends  "  whom  he  has  secured  in  every  sphere  of 
educated  life 

But  among  them  all  and  above  them  all,  the  loftiest  peak 
in  all  that  mountain  range,  there  sat  one  man  who  as  he  rose 
seemed  to  lift  up  that  congregation  of  scholars  and  to  crown 
the  scene  with  the  "  eternal  sunshine  "  of  his  towering  natural 
powers.  He  was  not  a  son  of  Harvard.  He  was  a  son,  sir, 
of  Dartmouth,  with  all  his  love  of  education  and  all  his  vast 
intellectual  force  and  ambition  inspired  by  what  was  in  his 
early  days  a  frontier  college.  Having  drunk  from  her  springs 
he  had  brought  his  great  mind  into  the  service  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  had  given  his  presence  to  the  halls  of  Harvard,  a 


130  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

pillar  to  the  Commonwealth,  a  crown  to  all  the  imposing 
mental  strength  engaged  at  that  day  in  completing  her  great- 
ness. I  do  not  now  recall  the  sentiment  to  which  he  respond- 
ed, but  I  do  remember  the  theme  on  which  he  dwelt,  and  I 
cannot  express  the  regret  I  feel  that  his  speech  has  nowhere 
been  recorded.  With  great  feeling  and  eloquence  he  entered 
upon  his  discourse  on  popular  education.  There  in  those 
classic  walls,  in  the  presence  of  the  scholars  whom  I  have 
enumerated,  he  placed  himself  alongside  of  what  Lord  Bacon 
calls  the  common  and  concurrent  judgment  and  intellect  of 
mankind,  and  spoke  his  eloquent  word  for  that  vast  flowing 
tide  of  popular  education  which  has  borne  on  the  American 
people  to  their  great  achievement  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  As  an  alumnus  of  Dartmouth  and  an  adopted  son  of 
Harvard,  a  college  student  standing  on  college  ground,  he 
spoke  for  that  universal  diffusion  of  knowledge  which  has 
roused  the  American  mind  and  warmed  the  American  heart 
with  that  love  of  sound  learning  which  has  made  us  powerful 
in  peace  and  in  war,  strong,  independent,  loyal.  Let  me 
say  in  the  presence  of  this  assembly,  in  the  presence  of  the 
head  of  that  favored  college  which  gave  Webster  his  educa- 
tion, let  me  say  as  the  representative  of  the  practical  and 
industrial  department  of  our  government,  claiming  no  merit 
of  scholarship  beyond  that  which  would  teach  the  farmers  of 
this  country  how  to  manage  that  inestimable  blessing,  their 
own  independent  acres,  as  the  head  of  that  department  which 
I  trust  will  one  day  stand,  as  it  should,  foremost  in  the  confi- 
dence and  esteem  of  the  people  whose  servant  it  is,  — let  me 
say  that  Mr.  Webster's  power  on  that  occasion  grew  out  of 
the  fact  that  he  embodied  in  himself,  more  than  any  other 
man  then  living,  that  broad  general  culture  which  distinguishes 
the  American  mind.  From  the  schools  of  this  country  and 
Europe  there  go  forth  scientists  who  devote  themselves  to 
exploring  the  realm  of  matter  and  to  interpreting  all  physical 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  131 

laws,  and  scholars  to  whom  the  great  volume  of  learning 
is  open  on  every  page.  The  contest  between  these  great 
classes  of  cultivated  minds  has  found  expression  in  the  dis- 
cussion on  the  comparative  value  of  classical  and  technolog- 
ical studies  which  has  so  long  occupied  the  educational 
thought  of  both  continents.  When  Matthew  Arnold  discusses 
"  cultivation  of  a  sense  for  conduct,"  and  "  cultivation  of  a 
sense  for  beauty,"  he  defines  the  two  lines  along  which  mod- 
ern education  has  chosen  to  travel.  And  when  he  discusses 
the  one  as  against  the  other,  and  declares  for  that  literary 
culture  which  prepares  the  human  mind  for  a  true  under- 
standing of  all  that  is  beautiful  in  thought,  he  assumes  that 
there  must  be  a  natural  incapacity  for  comprehending  the 
practical  and  the  aesthetic  at  the  same  time.  But  we  are 
taught  that  this  is  not  so.  The  business  of  American  educa- 
tion is  to  send  into  every  walk  in  life  skill  and  taste  com- 
bined. Capacity  for  work  and  love  of  knowledge  are  the 
two  halves  of  that  dual  existence  which  the  learned  American 
longs  to  compass.  This  combination  our  boys  labor  for  in 
the  industrial  college,  our  prosperous  men  in  every  branch 
of  business  desire,  and  our  laboring  men  may  find  in  it  the 
comfort  and  solace  of  the  hard  toil  of  life.  As  a  representa- 
tive of  these  two  educational  forces  Mr.  Webster  stands 
almost  unequalled.  Placing  them  in  parallel  lines  he  went 
on  in  his  great  educational  work.  Here  on  these  hills  he 
applied  his  "  cultivation  of  his  sense  for  conduct,"  that  which 
made  him  a  useful  companion  to  the  farmers  of  this  country ; 
that  which  made  him  love  his  land  as  a  farmer  should  love 
it ;  that  which  made  him  proud  of  his  crops  and  gave  him  a 
profound  interest  in  all  agricultural  association  and  endeavor. 
With  what  enthusiasm  he  gave  instruction  to  his  farmer  ! 
How  fondly  he  dwells  on  the  details  of  his  farm  !  From  his 
sick-chamber  in  Washington  he  sends  forth  instructions  with 
regard  to  his  lands  and  his  cattle,  which  had  evidently  given 


132  THE    WEBSTEK    CENTENNIAL. 

him  a  new  sense  of  life,  and  had  lifted  him  into  the  sturdy 
strength  of  the  yeoman  as  he  "walks  afield."  The  consola- 
tion which  he  drew  from  the  contemplation  of  healthy  animal 
life  was  like  a  religious  consolation  to  his  soul.  In  his  hard 
toil  the  memories  of  rural  life  cheered  him ;  in  his  hours  of 
pain  and  weakness  the  abounding  life  of  nature  was  his  cor- 
dial. The  comfort  and  repose  which  Choate  found  in  his 
library,  Webster  found  on  his  farm.  The  one  leaned  for 
support  on  the  arm  of  his  fellow-man,  the  other  found 
strength  from  reposing  on  the  lap  of  Nature.  And  while 
pursuing  with  his  whole  mind  and  heart  this  practical  and 
material  path,  without  contraction  or  narrowness,  never 
sharpened  and  belittled  by  details,  he  kept  his  mind  filled 
with  that  literary  inspiration  which  gave  him  his  vast  power 
whenever  he  appeared  before  senates  and  the  people,  and 
gave  him  the  capacity  to  win  for  himself  the  enviable  title  of 
the  great  Defender  of  the  Constitution,  and  enabled  him  to 
convince  courts  and  juries  by  his  learning  as  a  lawyer  and  his 
might  as  an  advocate.  So  I  say  in  response  to  the  toast  for 
Harvard,  that  when  she  adopted  Daniel  Webster  as  her  son, 
she  took  to  her  fireside  one  who  represented  the  American 
mind  in  all  its  power,  and  represented  as  you,  I  am  sure, 
once  the  distinguished  and  thoughtful  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Education  in  Massachusetts  [turning  to  Gov.  Boutwell], 
will  recognize,  the  importance  of  that  wide  general  culture 
which  makes  our  boys  useful  wherever  they  may  be  found  ; 
which  has  made  the  popular  mind  of  America  the  command- 
ing mind  of  this  age  of  the  world  ;  which  enables  us  to  adopt 
all  cultivated  men  from  foreign  lands  into  the  deepest  labor 
of  our  life  ;  leads  us  to  open  our  doors  to  all  great  intellectual 
effort ;  and  is  preparing  the  way  we  have  opened  in  the  last 
half-century  to  range  ourselves  by  the  side  of  the  highest 
literary  nations  of  ancient  or  modern  times. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  hope  you  will  pardon  me.     Had  I  had 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  133 

five  minutes'  warning  I  could  have  made  a  shorter  speech, 
but  I  had  comparatively  no  warning  at  all.  The  programme 
of  this  performance  was  presented  to  me  as  I  was  coming  to 
this  tent,  with  the  statement  that  I  was  to  respond  for  Har- 
vard College.  My  heart  sank  within  me,  and  it  was  not 
until  I  had  the  pleasure  and  honor  of  facing  an  audience  of 
my  fellowr-citizens  that  my  courage  rose  with  the  occasion 
and  gave  me  power  to  respond,  even  in  this  unworthy  man- 
ner, to  the  toast  assigned  me.  I  only  wish  President  Eliot 
had  been  here,  sir.  I  only  wish  the  President  of  the  for- 
tunate University  which  adopted  Daniel  Webster  could  have 
been  here  to  join  hands  with  the  accomplished  President  of 
the  still  more  fortunate  college  which  gave  him  birth,  so  that 
the  American  people  might  see  how  the  son  of  one  literary 
family  can  be  adopted  into  the  domestic  harmony  and  peace 
and  beauty  of  another. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  MARSHALL  P.  WILDER. 

President  Allen  said  :  "  We  expected  with  us  to-day  the 
venerable  President  of  the  New  England  Historic,  Genealog- 
ical Society.  Not  being  able  to  come,  he  sent  a  few  words, 
and  I  will  ask  Hon.  Albert  Palmer  to  read  them  to  you." 

Hon.  Albert  Palmer  prefaced  his  reading  by  saying  :  "  Mr. 
President,  I  feel  honored  in  being  called  upon  to  read  the 
very  short  speech  of  the  venerable  gentleman  whose  absence 
by  this  Society  is  profoundly  regretted,  as  it  is  always 
regretted  in  any  public  assembly  in  Massachusetts.  Mr. 
Wilder's  letter  is  as  follows  :  " 

Your  Excellency :  I  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  your 
recognizance  of  the  Xew  England  Historic,  Genealogical  So- 
ciety on  this  occasion.  This  is  manifestly  proper,  for,  like 
our  parent  institution,  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 


134  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

its  mission  is  to  gather  up,  preserve  and  transmit  to  those 
who  are  to  succeed  us  whatever  may  be  interesting  and  in- 
structive in  regard  to  the  history  of  our  blessed  land,  and 
especially  of  our  own  beloved  Xew  England.  And  what  can 
be  of  more  interest  to  a  son  of  America  than  the  commemo- 
ration of  the  life  and  services  of  him  whose  birth  we  this  day 
celebrate,  of  him  to  whom  this  nation  owes  more  for  the 
preservation  of  her  Constitution  and  the  perpetuation  of  our 
honor  than  to  any  other  man  ?  I  have  spoken  on  several 
occasions  commemorative  of  the  birth  of  Mr.  Webster  the 
present  season,  and  I  most  heartily  rejoice  that  I  am  remem- 
bered among  those  who  are  to  take  part  in  these  ceremonies. 
I  rejoice,  also,  that  the  Webster  Historical  Society  have  in 
their  wisdom  chosen  this  place,  the  consecrated  home  of  our 
departed  friend,  as  a  most  appropriate  spot  on  which  to  show 
forth,  by  public  demonstration,  that  gratitude  which  the  na- 
tion owes  to  the  memory  of  her  illustrious  son  —  here,  by 
the  presence  of  the  chief  magistrate  of  our  nation  and  other 
dignitaries  of  our  land  and  these  congregated  thousands,  to 
engrave  on  the  tablet  of  time  another  memorial  of  the  worth 
of  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  this  or  any  other  age. 

As  I  have  said  on  another  occasion,  I  count  it  one  of  the 
happiest  reminiscences  of  my  somewhat  protracted  life  that  I 
was  numbered  among  the  friends  of  Mr.  Webster ;  and  I  am 
most  grateful  to  the  Giver  of  all  good  that  my  life  has  been 
prolonged  to  this  time,  and  that  I  am  able  once  more  to  join 
in  the  service  of  paying  honors  to  the  memory  of  one  of  the 
most  illustrious  men  the  world  has  ever  known.  Xew  Eng- 
land has  had  no  such  other  talented  son ;  America  has  had 
no  superior  statesman,  orator  or  jurist.  As  a  wise  counsel- 
lor in  the  halls  of  Congress,  as  champion  of  the  American 
Union,  the  expounder  of  the  Constitution  and  the  great  apostle 
of  international  right,  he  stood  above  all  his  compeers  in  this 
or  other  lands.     His  works  are  among  the  most  valuable  of 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  135 

American  literature.  No  other  set  of  volumes  contains  more 
patriotism  or  wisdom  than  these.  In  your  own  words,  Mr. 
President,  "He  put  the  work  and  genius  of  more  than  an 
ordinary  lifetime  of  service  into  the  arching  and  knitting  of 
the  Union.  He  made  it  the  charter  of  one  great  country, 
the  United  States  of  America.  He  made  the  States  a  nation, 
and  enfolded  them  in  its  single  banner.  To-day,  and  while 
the  Eepublic  endures,  the  student  and  the  legislator  turn  to 
the  full  fountain  of  his  statement  for  the  enunciation  of  these 
principles.  His  extraordinary  intellectual  power,  his  com- 
prehensive mind,  his  powerful  advocacy  of  those  great  prin- 
ciples which  have  made  our  nation  what  it  is,  have  astonished 
the  world,  and  will  forever  illumine  the  history  of  our  blessed 
land  and  shine  with  brighter  and  brighter  effulgence,  while 
honor,  patriotism,  loyalty  and  integrity  shall  have  a  place  in 
the  record  of  human  excellence." 

Mr/President,  I  rejoice  in  the  establishment  of  the  Web- 
ster Historical  Society,  whose  peculiar  object  is  the  gather- 
ing up  and  preserving  through  future  time  all  that  can  be 
secured  in  regard  to  the  life  and  services  of  America's  illus- 
trious son.  God  bless  its  efforts  !  Long  may  it  live  to  pur- 
sue the  noble  work  of  perpetuating  the  name  and  fame  of 
Daniel  Webster ! 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  THOMAS  RUSSELL. 
I  thank  you,  Governor,  for  calling  on  me  to  respond  to 
that  sentiment.  You  represent  the  State.  Our  Society 
represents  the  founders  of  the  State.  And  never  Avere  their 
virtues  better  set  forth  than  by  Daniel  Webster,  and  never 
was  a  nobler  sacrifice  offered  to  their  memory,  than  when, 
standing  on  Plymouth  Rock  and  speaking  in  their  name,  lie 
stamped  out  the  remains  of  the  foul  African  slave  trade  in 


136  THE  WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

New  England.  Well  may  he  rest  by  the  side  of  the  children 
of  Winslow,  almost  in  sight  of  the  homes  and  graves  of 
Alden,  of  Standish  and  Brewster,  of  Bradford  and  of  Carver. 

But  when  Webster  had  spoken  of  the  Pilgrims,  nothing 
remained  to  be  said ;  and  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  leave  my 
text  to  tell  briefly  Avhy  an  old  Abolitionist  desires  to  be  here 
to-day.  I  never  found  it  necessary  to  prove  my  loyalty  to 
liberty  by  attempting  to  defile  the  tomb  of  Daniel  Webster. 
We  have  grown  tolerant  since  1850.  It  has  come  to  be  sus- 
pected that  two  men  may  differ  and  yet  each  be  honest.  We 
can  retain  our  respect  for  a  faithful  representative  in  either 
branch  of  Congress  who  has  voted  for  a  bill  that  we  do  not 
altogether  like,  while  we  give  honor  and  praise  and  thanks 
to  the  President  who  met  that  bill  by  a  manly  veto. 

When  our  friend  Allen  told  me  that  this  celebration  was 
planned  for  the  sixth  day  of  October,  I  said  to  him,  "  Make 
it  the  6th  of  March  and  everybody  will  come  !  "  And  that 
light  word  brings  up  the  thought,  can  it  be  that  this  great 
man  who  for  sixty-eight  years  had  lived  in  all  honor  —  the 
upright  statesman,  the  devoted  patriot,  the  loving  son  and 
father,  the  faithful  husband  —  yes,  in  spite  of  lying  lips  and 
prurient  pens,  the  faithful  husband  —  the  kind  neighbor,  the 
good  citizen  —  can  it  be  that  all  at  once  he  allowed  his  glory 
to  depart,  and  became  a  recreant  to  the  principles  of  his  life  ? 
Forbid  it,  charity,  forbid  it,  common  sense  !  On  the  7th  of 
March  his  most  disappointed  friend  might  say,  "The  past  at 
least  is  secure,  and  in  the  light  of  the  past  must  this  day  be 
judged." 

Kemember,  the  motive  of  his  speech  was  the  fear  of  dis- 
union, the  dread  of  civil  war.  And  the  answer  from  a  thou- 
sand platforms  and  presses  was  that  there  was  no  danger, 
and  that  war  was  a  bugbear.  Long  ago  Ave  learned  that  he 
saw  more  than  others,  although  even  his  eyes  could  not  see 
what  ours  now  behold.     But  if  all  could  have  seen  what  he 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  137 

then  saw,  and  could  have  seen  no  more,  how  many  of  his 
critics  would  have  been  found  upon  his  side  ! 

When  Edward  Everett  died  he  was  honored  by  the  love 
and  reverence  of  the  whole  land.  Yet  he  had  approved  every 
word  that  had  been  spoken  by  his  friend.  How,  then,  did 
he  gain  this  unanimity  of  praise  ?  Simply  by  living  to  share 
and  to  guide  the  public  counsels  in  the  hour  of  war.  And 
who  doubts  where  Webster  would  have  been  found  in  that 
hour  ?  Who  does  not  feel  that  the  full  height  and  depth  and 
warmth  of  a  plea  for  union  was  never  reached  because  his 
tongue  Avas  silent  in  the  grave?  How  often  in  those  dark 
days  did  we  borrow  the  language  of  Choate  and  cry  out, 
"  Oh  for  one  hour  of  Daniel  Webster  !  "  Yet  did  Ave  not  hear 
his  voice,  and  was  not  his  influence  felt  all  through  the  war? 
To  what  armory  did  men  turn  for  weapons  ;  at  what  source 
did  they  find  inspiration  ?  You  cannot  trace  out  the  love  of 
union  which  you  feel,  any  more  than  you  can  trace  each  grain 
of  iron  in  your  veins.  But  more  than  tongue  can  tell,  it 
came  from  the  teachings  of  Webster.  I  can  ffive  one  remi- 
niscence,  which  I  received  from  an  older  member  of  my 
family,  of  a  memorable  occasion  in  18309  when  the  elder 
children  were  allowed  to  remain  at  the  fireside  until  mid- 
night, while  their  father,  with  faltering  voice  and  tearful  eyes, 
read  the  grand  defence  of  Massachusetts  and  of  the  Union. 
His  influence  flows  through  every  vein  and  throbs  in  every 
nerve  of  this  nation's  life.  None  of  our  generals  —  no,  not 
our  all-conquering  Grant  —  wielded  a  mightier  force  in  its 
defence.  Think  of  tile  double  victory  he  helped  to  win.  He 
was  blamed  because  his  love  of  union  seemed  to  overshadow 
his  love  of  liberty.  But  by  the  restoration  of  union  was 
liberty  secured.  The  slave  was  emancipated  by  the  triumph 
of  our  government,  and  our  government  triumphed  through 
the  victories  of  our  armies,  and  those  armies  were  recruited 
and  inspired  by  the  love  of  union  which  he  had  spent  his  life 


138  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

to  teach.  Glorious  champion !  lying  here  by  the  sea,  he 
struck  a  blow  which  helped  to  break  alike  the  force  of  rebel- 
lion and  the  fetters  of  the  slave.  And  the  triumph  was 
neither  temporary  nor  partial.     It  is  union  forever  !     Thank 

God,  it  is  LIBERTY  FOR  ALL   ! 


President  Allen  said,  "  I  recognize  among  us  one  whose 
face  thirty  years  ago  was  seen  at  the  funeral  of  Webster,  and 
who  was  then  the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth.  I  have 
the  honor  to  introduce  to  you  the  Hon.  George  S.  Boutwell, 
of  Massachusetts." 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  GEORGE  S.  BOUTWELL. 
Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen: 

Mr.  Webster  was  one  of  the  last  of  a  long  line  of  American 
statesmen  who,  in  the  presence  of  slavery,  strove  to  pre- 
serve liberty  and  the  Union,  and  of  that  long  line  he  was  the 
greatest.  For  seventy  years  the  thoughtful  men  of  all 
parties  were  forced  to  consider  the  system  of  slavery  in 
America,  its  relations  to  the  Union,  and  its  inherent  antag- 
onism to  the  principles  on  which  the  government  was 
founded. 

Slavery  gave  birth  to  one  form  of  civilization,  and  freedom 
srave  birth  to  another,  and  from  the  be<rinnin<>;  the  rule  of  the 
continent  was  the  prize  for  which  the  parties  contended. 
Each  succeeding  census  made  clear  and  more  clear  the  truth 
that  time  was  on  the  side  of  liberty,  and  that  a  postponement 
of  the  struggle  would  be  fatal  to  slavery.  Hence,  each 
census  from  1820  to  1860,  inclusive,  with  the  exception  of 
that  of  1840,  when  the  public  mind  was  pre-occupied  with 
grave  questions  of  finance,  wrought  a  crisis  which  menaced 
the  public  peace.  On  two  occasions  Mr.  Webster  met  the 
peril  and  controlled  it. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  139 

First,  in  1830,  when  he  chose  his  place  with  Gen.  Jack- 
son, and  won  imperishable  fame  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate ; 
and  again,  in  1850,  when  he  secured  a  postponement  of  the 
contest,  but  at  the  sacrifice  of  his  popularity  and  the  ruin  of 
his  fortunes.  Mr.  AVebster  claimed  that  the  postponement 
of  the  struggle  would  result  in  the  supremacy  of  liberty  and 
the  preservation  of  the  Union ;  and  it  would  be  unjust  to 
deny  to  him  that  foresight,  statesmanship  and  patriotism 
which  the  claim  involves.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  he  did  not 
anticipate  the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery.  His  thoughts 
and  policy  contemplated  only  peaceful  measures.  First,  the 
limitation  of  the  system,  and  then  the  gradual  emancipation 
of  the  slaves.  The  compromise  measures  of  1850  gave  the 
North  ten  years  of  time,  and  those  years  were  years  of  prep- 
aration for  the  struggle  of  1860  and  the  war  of  the  rebellion. 

In  those  ten  years  the  public  mind  was  educated  and  the 
body  of  the  people  were  prepared  for  the  solution  of  the 
problem,  whether  by  peace  or  by  war.  If  the  contest  had 
been  precipitated  in  1850  the  result  might  have  been  a 
division  of  the  Republic,  and  for  the  continent  there  would 
have  been  neither  union  nor  liberty. 

It  is  not  just  to  Mr.  AVebster  to  assume  that  he  builded 
better  than  he  knew.     He  builded  as  he  knew. 

At  the  moment  of  his  death  his  policy  appeared  to  be 
acceptable  to  the  country,  but  in  less  than  two  years,  old 
compromises  were  violated,  and  it  was  then  idle  and  in  vain 
to  make  appeals  in  behalf  of  the  new.  In  the  review  we 
must  admit  that  the  processes  of  compromise  from  the  for- 
mation of  the  Constitution  to  the  opening  of  the  rebellion 
were  calculated  to  preserve  liberty  and  the  Union,  and,  in 
the  end,  to  render  them  one  and  inseparable.  The  incidental 
results  were  disagreeable,  but  they  were  also  temporary. 
The  end  was  freedom  for  the  continent,  and  a  continent 
included  within  the  limits  of  the  Union. 


140  THE  WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

Thus  liberty  and  the  Union  became  one  and  inseparable. 

For  thirty  years  Mr.  Webster  was  the  chief  personage  in 
Massachusetts,  in  New  England,  in  the  Republic.  In  politics 
he  had  competitors,  but  in  diplomacy,  in  logical  precision 
and  force,  in  knowledge  of  the  Constitution,  in  ability  to 
deal  with  the  gravest  questions  of  law  and  statesmanship,  in 
that  genius  by  whose  poAver  he  adorned  whatever  he  said 
with  an  imagery  as  bold  and  magnificent  as  that  of  Milton, 
and  as  true  to  nature  as  that  of  Shakespeare,  he  was  without 
an  equal  or  a  rival.  Wherever  he  stood  he  was  great,  and 
the  demand  which  he  made  for  public  consideration  was 
based  on  that  greatness. 

vMr.  Webster  was  not  an  unconscious  bearer  of  a  royal 
intellect,  and  at  the  end  he  was  forced  to  look  with  some- 
thing of  contempt  upon  that  public  action  which  advanced 
inferior  men  and  denied  to  him  the  chiefest  honor  of  the 
Republic. 

When  Mr.  Webster  spoke  at  Plymouth  in  1820,  when  he 
spoke  in  the  Senate  of  1830,  there  were  men  living  who  had 
heard  Burke,  and  Fox,  and  Sheridan,  and  with  them  only, 
of  all  English  speaking  orators,  was  he  contrasted  or  com- 
pared. And  if,  for  the  moment,  we  can  command  the  whole 
range  of  history,  it  is  difficult  to  summon  another  orator 
who,  in  the  Senate  and  in  the  contest  of  1830,  could  have 
met  so  completely  the  demand  of  the  occasion,  and  justified 
so  fully  his  cause  and  his  conduct  of  it  to  future  ages.  And 
if  again,  for  the  moment,  we  can  command  the  whole  range 
of  history,  can  its  ten  great  orators  be  named  and  Mr.  Web- 
ster be  excluded  from  the  list  ?  Of  those  who  have  spoken 
the  English  language,  he  is  inferior  only  to  Burke,  and  if 
the  position  which  Macaulay  assigns  to  Burke  shall  be  sus- 
tained by  the  continuing  judgment  of  mankind,  then  will 
Mr.  Webster's  countrymen  claim  for  him  the  second  place  on 
the  page  of  universal  history.  '  An  orator  is  not  made  by  a 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  141 

single  happy  paragraph,  nor  born  of  one  fortunate  speech. 
He  is  to  live  in  the  public  eye  through  a  long  period  of  time, 
and  he  must  deal  temperately,  forcibly,  persuasively,  wisely, 
with  a  variety  of  questions  touching  the  public  interests  or 
relating  to  the  public  welfare.  All  these  conditions,  and 
whatever  else  may  be  demanded  of  the  orator,  were  fully  met 
in  Mr.  Webster's  career. 

Mr.  Webster  was  great  in  intellect,  majestic  in  his  person, 
great  in  his  friendships,  great  in  his  enmities. 

His  fame  rests  upon  the  intellectual  forces  that  he  pos- 
sessed, and  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  uses  to  which  they 
were  applied.  A  public  man  cannot  choose  his  career.  He 
must  deal  with  the  questions  of  his  own  generation.  It  was 
Mr.  Webster's  fortune  to  be  called  to  the  study  and  discus- 
sion of  a  new  constitution  framed  for  a  new  people.  In  the 
main  his  views  have  been  sustained  by  judicial  decisions  and 
sanctioned  by  the  course  of  political  events. 

The  virtue  of  a  written  constitution  is  in  the  interpretation 
given  to  it.  Mr.  Webster  spoke  for  national  life,  for  national 
power,  for  public  honor,  for  public  virtue.  His  views  of  the 
Constitution  are  to  be  considered  by  all  who  shall  study  that 
Constitution  and  by  all  who  are  called  to  interpret  it.  He 
has  thus  become  a  worker  in  all  the  future  of  the  Republic. 
The  two  great  orators  of  antiquity  pleaded  the  cause  of  dying 
states,  but  it  was  Webster's  better  fortune  to  aid  in  giving 
form  and  character  to  a  young  and  growing  nation. 


142  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENXIAL. 


LETTERS  FROM  INVITED  GUESTS. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  letters  of  invited  guests 
who  were  unable  to  be  present :  — 

[From  Hon.  Roscoe  Conkling.] 

I  beg  you  to  receive  my  thanks  for  the  invitation  to  be 
the  guest  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  at  Marshfield 
on  the  12th  of  October,  on  occasion  of  the  Centennial  celebra- 
tion of  Mr.  Webster's  birth.  Much  esteeming  the  honor  of 
your  note,  it  would  be  very  gratifying  to  join  in  paying  hom- 
age to  the  memory  of  a  man  whose  fame  far  outreached  his 
country,  when  to  be  foremost  in  Massachusetts  might  have 
rounded  the  ambition  of  any  man.  A  master  of  our  lan- 
guage, a  master  of  the  science  and  the  practice  of  govern- 
ment and  of  law,  his  knowledge  of  our  institution,  and  his 
matchless  powers  of  exposition,  enabled  him  to  leave  an 
imperishable  impress  on  the  history  and  thought  of  America. 
To  pay  honor  to  such  an  intellect  and  to  such  achievements 
is  to  bear  good  witness  of  ourselves. 

I  would  I  could  be  one  of  you  on  the  appointed  day,  but 
less  grateful  duties  deny  me  the  privilege. 

[From  Hon.  William  M.  Evarts.] 
I  regret  very  much  to  find  that  it  will  be  quite  impossible 
for  me  to  attend  the  Marshfield  celebration  on  Thursday 
night.  I  had  expected  to  be  able  to  take  part  in  this  inter- 
esting commemoration  at  the  earlier  date  purposed  for  it,  but 
engagements  which  I  cannot  escape  will  prevent  my  leaving 
the  city  at  this  time.  I  should  be  very  glad,  by  a  visit  to 
Marshfield,  to  recall  the  impressive  scene  at  Mr.  Webster's 
burial  just  thirty  years  ago,  as  well  as  to  meet  and  hear  the 
eminent  persons  who  are  to  pay  their  homage  to  his  memory 
at  his  grave. 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  143 

[From  George  Ticknor  Curtis,  Esq.] 

New  York,  October  8, 1882. 

Gentlemen, — I  have  been  honored  by  your  invitation  to 
attend  the  celebration  at  Marshfield  on  the  12th  of  this 
month,  of  the  centennial  year  of  Mr.  Webster's  birth,  to  be 
held  under  the  auspices*  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society. 
It  will  not  be  in  my  power  to  be  present ;  and  it  is  with  a 
divided  feeling  that  I  am  obliged  to  forego  the  acceptance  of 
your  invitation.  I  should  indeed  be  most  glad  on  some 
accounts  to  unite  with  you  in  paying  honor  to  the  memory 
of  my  great  friend,  at  his  favorite  home  and  at  the  tomb 
where  his  mortal  remains  repose.  But  I  have  not  seen 
Marshfield  since  the  time-,  now  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  when 
I  stood  with  others  at  his  bedside  and  witnessed  his  remark- 
able death,  heard  and  treasured  his  last  words,  and  then, 
when  all  was  duly  and  decently  arranged,  along  with  the 
thousands  who  followed  his  hearse,  laid  all  of  him  that  could 
die  in  the  burial-place  which  he  had  chosen  and  which  over- 
looks the  scene  that  he  had  loved  so  well.  It  might  be  that 
to  me  painful  feelings  would  be  awakened  by  the  absence  of 
that  old  familiar  house,  every  part  of  which,  and  its  sur- 
roundings, are  vividly  present  to  my  memory.  I  would 
wish  not  to  break  this  image  by  ocular  proof  that  it  no 
longer  exists  in  reality  as  it  is  painted  in  my  recollection  in 
colors  and  lineaments  that  can  never  fade  so  long  as  recollec- 
tion remains  to  me.  I  must  therefore  content  myself  with 
expressing  in  this  form  a  few  thoughts  which  the  occasion 
naturally  suggests. 

The  thirty  years  which  have  rolled  by  since  the  death  of 
Daniel  Webster  has  divided  our  present  era  from  his  by  a 
great  chasm.  A  sectional  civil  war,  which  he  feared,  and 
strove  with  his  utmost  efforts  to  avert,  has  come  and  gone. 
Sectional  passions,  which  he  deprecated  and  discouraged, 
have  burned  their  fiercest  fires,  and  those  fires  are  now  al- 


144  THE    WEBSTEK   CENTENNIAL. 

most  extinguished.     Great  changes  in  the  political  and  social 
condition  of  the  country,  marked  by  radical  alterations  of  the 
federal  Constitution,  have  followed  from  the  triumph  in  arms 
of  one  of  the  sections  over  the  other.     Our  political  system 
in  one  respect  is  to-day  fundamentally  different  from  what  it 
was  in  Mr.  Webster's  lifetime.     Between  his  era  and  that  in 
which  we  are  now  living  there  is  a  wide  gulf.     Yet  across 
that  gulf  his  majestic  figure  stands  out  to  view  as  that  of  the 
most  important  statesman  of  an  age  fruitful  in  great  men. 
It  is  now  almost  universally  admitted  that  to  his  teachings 
and  to  his  influence  we  owe  the  prevalence  of  the  constitu- 
tional doctrine  which  made  it  right  for  the  federal  govern- 
ment to  vindicate  its  just  authority  by  resisting  an  attempt 
to  break  up  the  Union.     It  is  also  now  plainly  to  be  seen 
that  if  his  warnings  had  been  heeded  —  warnings  which  in 
perfect  impartiality  and  in  an  all-comprehending  patriotism 
he  gave  to  both  sections  regardless  of  the  consequences  to 
himself — there  never  would  have  been  any  secession  or  any 
necessity  for  an  assertion  of  the  federal  authority  on  the  field 
of  battle ;  there  would  have  been  no  war,  no  suffering  such 
as  war  always  brings  in  its  train,  no  scars  to  remain  on  the 
feelings  of  one  portion  of  this  people  towards  another.     Mr. 
Webster,  therefore,  as  a  great    historical  character,   has  a 
fame  that  is  marked  by  a  double  glory.     He  not  only  pointed 
to  this  nation  how  it  could  and  ought  to  avert  the  necessity 
of  a  sectional  conflict,  but  when  that  conflict  had  come,  after 
he  had  passed  away,  his  constitutional  doctrines,  taught  at 
an  earlier  period  and  ingrained  into  the  political  faith  of  a 
generation,  were  found  to  be  the  only  principle  on  which  the 
federal  government  could  justly  claim  the  right  to  encounter 
by  arms  an  attempted  secession  of  the  States  from  the  Union. 
And  now  in  the  celebration  of  his  birthday  or  in  the  modes 
of  doing  honor  to  his  memory,  what  have  we  to  do  more 
than  to  impress  upon  the  rising  generations  the  importance 


THE  WEBSTEK  CENTENNIAL.  145 

of  a  study  of  his  public  character  and  the  abounding  nature 
of  his  patriotism.  His  great  abilities,  his  intellectual  pre- 
eminence are  known  of  all  men.  Monuments  of  his  intel- 
lectual power,  which  will  probably  never  perish  so  long  as 
our  language  endures,  are  erected  all  along  the  period  during 
which  he  personally  influenced  his  age.  The  traces  which 
he  has  left  in  our  constitutional  law  can  never  be  obliterated 
Avhile  our  institutions  shall  continue  to  live.  His  eloquence 
will  never  cease  to  move  and  inspire  so  long  as  the  record 
of  it  shall  remain  among  men.  It  is  the  moral  character  of 
his  public  conduct,  the  unselfish  and  unsectional  scope  of  his 
patriotism,  the  grandeur  of  his  views,  which  could  take  in  the 
welfare  of  a  great  country  and  stretch  beyond  the  narrow  limits 
of  local  interest  and  sectional  feelings  —  the  courage  that  could 
look  to  posterity  for  a  vindication  that  contemporaries  denied 
him  —  these  are  the  traits  in  Mr.  Webster's  public  character 
about  which  the  young  men  of  the  present  day  are  most 
concerned  and  most  anxious  to  be  informed  Be  assured 
that  your  Society  cannot  do  a  better  work  than  to  meet  this 
desire  of  the  youth  of  this  day  to  learn  why  it  is  that  their 
elders,  who  knew  and  loved  Webster,  do  now,  after  thirty 
years  have  elapsed  since  his  life  ended,  regard  him  as  the 
greatest  statesman  in  American  history,  next  after  Washing- 
ton. I  have  good  reason  to  know  that  Webster's  reputation 
is  growing  every  year,  that  the  educated  and  thoughtful 
young  men  of  the  present  day  are  studying  his  career,  and 
that  they  are  free  from  the  prejudices  which  some  of  his 
contemporaries  endeavored  to  transmit  to  them.  Teach 
them,  I  pray  you,  by  precept  and  by  example,  that  what  is 
now  needed  for  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  this  people  is 
to  imitate  his  regards  for  the  rights,  the  feelings  and  the 
interests  of  all  sections,  and  to  love  with  equal  affection  all 
who  bear  the  name  of  American,  and  who  honor  the  flag  of 
the  Union  as  the  symbol  of  their  country. 


146  THE  WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

[From  Hon.  Robert  R.  Bishop.] 

Boston,  October  11, 1882. 

Gentlemen, — I  regret  my  inability  to  be  present  at  the 
dinner  to  be  given  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  at 
the  home  of  Daniel  Webster  on  the  12th  inst.  Mr.  Webster's 
great  argument  before  the  Senate  of  Massachusetts  in  the 
impeachment  trial  of  Judge  Prescott  forever  connects  his 
fame  and  life  with  our  General  Court,  as  it  does  with  the 
principles  of  constitutional  liberty.  It  would  give  me,  as  a 
member  of  the  present  legislature,  great  satisfaction  to  join 
in  the  tribute  which  will  be  paid  to  his  memory  both  by  the 
nation,  through  its  head,  and  by  the  assemblage  which  will 
honor  the  occasion. 

[From  Prof.  S.  G.  Brown.] 

Dartmouth  College,  October  9, 1882. 
Gentlemen,  —  It  is  with  great  regret  that  I  am  obliged  to 
decline  the  invitation  from  the  Webster  Historical  Society  to 
attend  the  Centennial  celebration  of  the  year  of  the  birth  of 
Daniel  Webster  at  Marshfield.  No  name  of  the  generation  in 
which  he  lived  will  stand  higher  than  his  ;  no  patriotism  was 
purer  or  broader  in  its  scope ;  and  no  words  or  counsels  will 
be  more  frequently  appealed  to  in  the  future,  or  will  have 
greater  weight,  than  those  in  which  he  so  wisely  expounded 
the  true  meaning  of  the  Constitution,  and  so  eloquently 
defended  the  Union  under  which  the  nation  has  grown  to  be 
so  prosperous  and  so  powerful.  It  is  surely  peculiarly  fitting 
that  his  birth  one  hundred  years  ago  should  be  commemo- 
rated near  the  home  which  he  so  much  loved  and  within 
sight  of  his  honored  grave. 

[From  Chief  Justice  Marcus  Morton,] 

Andover,  October  10,  1882. 
My  dear  sir,  —  I  have  received  your  invitation  to  attend 
the  Centennial  celebration  of  the  birth  of  Daniel  Webster, 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  147 

and  to  respond  to  the  toast  of  "  The  Courts  of  Massachusetts." 
I  very  much  regret  that  the  pressure  of  public  duties  makes 
it  impossible  for  me  to  accept. 

The  courts  of  Massachusetts  were  the  training-school  in 
which  Mr.  Webster  was  educated  and  in  which  he  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  great  fame  as  a  statesman  and  constitutional 
lawyer.  Successful  statesmanship  consists  in  the  application 
and  enforcement  of  the  same  eternal  principles  in  the  affairs 
of  nations  which  the  lawyer  in  his  daily  practice  is  called 
upon  to  apply  in  the  contests  of  individuals.  It  would  be 
trite  and  commonplace  to  dwell  upon  the  great  ability  and 
success  with  which  Mr.  Webster  enforced  and  expounded 
those  principles  in  the  national  field  of  duty  in  which  the 
State  assigned  him  for  so  large  a  part  of  his  life,  or  upon 
the  lustre  which  his  career  reflected  upon  the  bar  of  Massa- 
chusetts. These  are  known  of  all  men.  There  was  one  act 
of  his  not  conspicuous  or  well  known,  which  exerted  a  great 
and  beneficial  influence  upon  the  welfare  of  the  State,  for 
which  the  courts  and  the  bar  ought  to  feel  especially  grate- 
ful to  him.  In  1830,  upon  the  death  of  Chief  Justice  Parker, 
the  governor  tendered  the  office  of  Chief  Justice  to  Lemuel 
Shaw,  then  in  full  practice  in  the  Suffolk  bar.  It  is  one  of 
the  traditions  ol  the  courts  that  Mr.  Shaw  was  disinclined  to 
accept  the  position,  and  was  finally  induced  to  do  so  by  the 
earnest  and  powerful  advice  and  persuasion  of  Mr.  Webster. 
Thus  her  greatest  statesman  gave  to  Massachusetts  he^ 
greatest  jurist. 


RESOLUTIONS   OF  THANKS. 

Resolutions  introduced  by  Mr.   Thomas  H.   Cummings 
secretary  of  Webster  Historical  Society  : 

Whereas  the  success  of  this,  celebration  is  due,  in  great 


148  THE   WEBSTEE    CENTENNIAL. 

measure,  to  the  generous   co-operation   of   other  influences 
than  our  own,  therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  that  the  thanks  of  the  Webster  Historical  Soci- 
ety are  due,  and  are  hereby  tendered,  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  for  his  acceptance  of  our  invitation  and 
kindly  attendance  here  to-day ;  to  the  members  of  his  cabi- 
net, the  Governors,  past  and  present,  and  other  distinguished 
statesmen,  our  honored  guests ;  to  Mrs.  Fletcher  Webster, 
for  her  cordial  reception  ;  to  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Ar- 
tillery, for  its  appropriate  and  ready  response  to  our  calls 
upon  its  valued  services ;  to  the  Plymouth  Division  of  the 
G.  A.  R.,  for  the  escort  given  our  citizens  ;  to  the  merchants 
of  Boston,  for  their  generous  munificence ;  to  the  town  of 
Marshfleld,  for  its  generous  entertainment;  to  the  press,  for 
its  voluntary  assistance,  and  to  the  ladies  who  have  graced 
us  with  their  presence. 

Mr.  Allen  in  closing  the  exercises  of  the  day  gave  a  brief  his- 
tory of  the  organization  as  given  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  vol- 
ume ;  and  thanking  the  people  for  their  attention  to  the  services, 
commended  the  Society  and  its  objects  to  the  whole  country. 

The  members  of  the  Society  and  guests  who  had  remained 
to  the  close  of  the  services  then  took  their  way  to  the  sta- 
tion, commenting  on  the  success  of  the  celebration,  and,  it  is 
hoped,  with  renewed  appreciation  of  the  life  and  work  of  the 
great  statesman.  After  a  short  delay  the  cars  were  taken 
for  Plymouth,  and  from  that  point  to  Boston.  It  is  a  pleas- 
ant thing  to  record  that  no  accident  occurred  during;  the  day. 

The  crowd  at  its  height  probably  numbered  from  15,000 
to  18,000  people.  The  transportation  of  this  multitude  was 
a  task  of  no  small  magnitude,  considering  the  disadvantages 
under  which  the  railroad  people  labored.  The  work  was 
done  in  first-class  shape.  The  promptness  with  which  the 
great  crowd  was  taken  to  its  destination  and  returned,  all  on 


Webster  the  Farmer. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  149 

a  single-track  branch  road,  without  a  single  mishap,  would 
merit  high  commendation  in  the  management  of  any  road. 

The  same  commendation  can  be  made  of  the  police  arrange- 
ments, which  were  carried  out  with  perfect  efficiency.  Chief 
Wade  of  the  State  force  was  in  charge,  and  his  sixteen  men 
were  reinforced  by  the  County  Deputy  Sheriffs,  and  a  detail 
from  the  Boston  city  force.  Nothjng  was  allowed  to  inter- 
fere with  the  prompt  movement  of  the  procession  and  vari- 
ous bodies  from  point  to  point,  and  the  courteous  officers 
were  of  great  assistance  in  many  ways  besides  the  enforce- 
ment of  order. 

The  badges  worn  by  the  guests  and  members  of  the  Web- 
ster Historical  Society  Avere  appropriately  designed  for  the 
occasion.  They  were  ribbons  of  different  colors  stamped 
with  a  portrait  of  Webster  representing  him  as  the  Marshfield 
farmer. 

The  day  was  drawing  to  a  close  ere  the  conclusion  of  the 
after-dinner  exercises,  and,  although  but  half  of  the  speeches 
had  been  delivered,  the  President  was  obliged  to  take  an 
early  train  for  Boston  in  order  to  fulfil  engagements  for  the 
evening.  As  the  guests,  comprising  the  Presidential  party, 
left  the  tent,  they  drew  the  attention  of  the  many  hundreds 
thromnn^  the  enclosure,  and  as  the  noble  form  of  the  Chief 
Executive  was  distinguished  from  the  others,  cheer  after 
cheer  rent  the  air.  To  this  outburst  of  enthusiasm  the  Pres- 
ident responded  by  lifting  his  hat,  and  after  entering  the 
carriage  he  was  driven  rapidly  to  another  portion  of  the 
grounds.  In  the  mean  time  the  Grand  Army  Posts  had 
formed  in  line  to  receive  the  President,  and  at  4.45  o'clock 
the  guests,  escorted  by  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery 
Company,  proceeded  to  the  station  and  immediately  entered 
the  cars.  The  procession  was  followed  by  a  motley  crowd 
of  old  and  young,  all  eager  for  a  parting  glance  at  their  dis- 
tinguished visitor.     The  platform  was  at  the  base  of  a  grad- 


150  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

ual  slope,  whose  face  was  blackened  with  the  crowds  who 
had  gathered  to  witness  the  departure,  and  at  5.05  o'clock, 
as  the  train  slowly  moved  away,  the  air  resounded  with  the 
huzzas  of  the  multitude  and  the  music  of  "Hail  to  the  Chief." 
President  Arthur  waived  his  farewell  to  the  people  of  Marsh- 
field,  and,  entering  the  car,  sank  into  an  easy-chair,  as  if 
glad  of  an  opportunity  to  rest.  He  chatted  pleasantly  with 
Gov.  Long  and  others  upon  the  events  of  the  day,  and  ex- 
pressed himself  as  having  derived  much  enjoyment  from  the 
visit.  After  a  brief  rest  the  President  mingled  with  the 
guests  who  composed  this  distinguished  gathering,  and  held 
a  pleasant  informal  reception.  A  few  privileged  ones  were 
presented,  and  the  time  was  passed  in  a  general  discussion 
of  topics  relating  to  the  State  and  nation.  Political  matters, 
although  touched  upon,  Avere  not  made  prominent.  A  glance 
through  the  car  showed  an  assemblage  of  culture  and  intel- 
ligence rarely  seen  in  railroad  travel.  A  group  in  the  centre 
of  the  car,  representing  as  it  did  the  United  States,  including 
our  New  England  States,  formed  a  striking  picture.  Sur- 
rounding the  President,  and  in  consultation  with  him,  were 
Gov.  Long  of  Massachusetts,  Gov.  Plaisted  of  Maine,  Gov. 
Farnham  of  Vermont,  Gov.  Bell  of  New  Hampshire,  Gov. 
Bigelow  of  Connecticut,  Secretary  Chandler,  Secretary  Lin- 
coln, while  at  a  little  distance  were  Gov.  Littlefieid  of  Rhode 
Island,  Mayor  Green,  Hon.  Marshall  Jewell,  Hon.  Alexander 
H.  Rice,  Chester  A.  Arthur,  Jr.,  Private  Secretary  Phillips, 
Assistant  Postmaster-General  Hatton,  Hon.  George  Bliss, 
President  Choate  of  the  Old  Colony  Railroad,  and  others. 
Here  and  there  were  Senators  and  Congressmen  discussing 
some  problem,  or  exchanging  views  with  the  staff  officers, 
whose  brilliant  uniforms  rendered  them  the  more  conspicu- 
ous. The  whole  combined  to  make  a  picture  of  perfect 
social  enjoyment.  As  the  train  approached  Hingham  the 
scene  changed.     Here  Gov.  Long  was  to  take  his  departure. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL .  151 

He  was  accompanied  by  Colonel  B.  S.  Lovell  and  Colonel 
Bouve.  On  the  platform  were  several  hundred  men  and 
women  whose  anxiety  to  see  the  President  was  rewarded, 
for,  as  the  train  stopped,  he  stepped  out  upon  the  rear  plat- 
form, receiving  an  ovation.  The  stop  was  not  long,  how- 
ever, and  the  crowds  were  soon  lost  to  view. 

The  train  drew  into  the  Old  Colony  passenger  station  at 
6.40  o'clock.  The  vestibule  and  upper  end  of  the  train  house 
were  crowded  with  people,  and  a  large  gathering  filled  Knee- 
land  street  and  adjacent  highways.  The  Ancients  filed  out 
of  the  cars  and  formed  upon  the  platform,  with  the  centre 
opposite  the  President's  car,  the  last  one  of  the  train.  The 
President  and  suite  and  Mayor  Green  took  position  in  the 
column,  which  passed  through  the  vestibule  to  Kneeland 
street.  Considerable  enthusiasm  was  manifested,  and  the 
President  was  loudly  cheered.  The  column  was  then  formed 
on  Kneeland  street,  the  President's  party  in  carriages  occu- 
pying a  position  between  the  right  and  left  wings  of  the 
Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company.  The  first  car- 
riage contained  President  Arthur,  Mayor  Green,  and  Hon. 
E.  S.  Tobey,  who  represented  President  Allen  of  the  Web- 
ster Historical  Society,  the  latter  having  remained  in  Marsh- 
field.  The  second  carriage  was  occupied  by  Secretaries 
Lincoln  and  Chandler,  President  Arthur's  son  and  Hon. 
Leopold  Morse.  The  third  conveyed  Private  Secretary 
Phillips,  Assistant  Postmaster-General  Hatton,  ex-Governor 
Farnham  of  Vermont,  and  Hon.  G.  Washington  Warren ;  and 
in  the  fourth  and  last  barouche  were  seated  Mr.  E.  F.  Thayer, 
of  the  Historical  Society,  and  Mr.  E.  S.  Tobey,  Jr.  The 
President's  carriage  was  flanked  by  a  guard  of  honor  from 
the  Worcester  Continentals.  The  route  was  through  Knee- 
land  and  Eliot  streets,  Park  square  and  Boylston  street  to 
the  Hotel  Brunswick,  which  Avas  reached  at  about  7.10 
o'clock.     The  party,  on  alighting,  remained  upon  the  steps 


152  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

while  the  escort  passed  in  review,  and  then  entered  the  hotel 
and  ascended  to  the  President's  apartments.  Here  the  guests 
were  surrendered  by  the  Webster  Historical  Society  to  the 
committee  of  the  City  Government,  and  the  formalities  of  the 
day  were  ended.  Early  in  the  evening  the  President  and 
suite  dined  as  the  guests  of  the  City  Committee. 

On  the  morning  of  the  13th,  Messrs.  Stephen  M.  Allen,  R. 
M.  Pulsifer,  George  W.  Richardson  and  E.  F.  Thayer  waited 
upon  the  President  at  the  Brunswick. 

In  conversation  the  President  expressed  himself  as  highly 
gratified  at  the  attentions  shown  him,  and  as  greatly  pleased 
with  his  trip  to  the  city.  It  was  his  first  visit  to  Marshfield, 
he  said,  and  he  mentioned  incidentally  that  he  had  never 
seen  Mr.  Webster,  During  the  reception  Hon.  Stephen  M. 
Allen  offered  for  the  acceptance  of  the  President  the  only 
memento  of  the  celebration  to  be  had,  in  the  shape  of  a  small 
baton,  made  of  the  wood  of  a  tree  which  grew  by  the  side  of 
Mr.  Webster's  birthplace  in  Salisbury,  N.H.  The  President 
accepted  the  offering  gratefully,  with  the  remark  that  he 
would  treasure  it  as  a  pleasant  memento  of  an  occasion  which 
he  should  never  forget. 

The  time  having  arrived  for  the  departure,  the  four-horse 
landau  was  driven  up  to  the  hotel  for  the  last  time  and  en- 
tered by  the  President  and  the  Mayor,  Secretaries  Chandler 
and  Lincoln,  Assistant  Postmaster-General  Hatton,  Private 
Secretary  Phillips,  Mrs.  Secretary  Chandler  and  her  sister 
and  the  City  Committee  taking  other  conveyances.  The 
officers  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  and  the  Committee 
of  Reception  bade  adieu  to  the  President  in  the  rotunda  of 
the  hotel.  A  few  moments  before  the  carriages  started,  the 
President  sent  his  aid  to  Mr.  Allen,  who  stepped  down  to  the 
side  of  the  carriage,  Avhen  the  President  again  expressed  him- 
self as  highly  pleased  with  his  visit,  and  added,  "Please  thank 
your  Committee  for  me  for  the  great  discretion  used  through- 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  153 

out  the  celebration."  There  were  few  bystanders,  and  no  de- 
monstration except  by  the  guests  of  the  hotel.  The  Albany 
station  was  reached  at  10.40  o'clock,  the  party  debarking  at 
the  side  entrance,  and  passing  through  a  small  crowd,  which 
applauded  the  President,  to  the  train.  When  the  special  car 
was  reached,  the  President  paused  for  a  moment  outside,  and 
was  soon  surrounded  by  a  group  of  fifty  or  more,  among 
whom  were  John  Hoey,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  and  Gen.  Wil- 
son, President  of  the  New  York  &  New  England  Eailroad. 
The  former  Avas  earnestly  requested  by  the  President  to 
accompany  him  on  the  trip,  but  was  obliged  to  decline  the 
honor.  Soon  after,  Mrs.  Gen.  Custer,  who  was  a  passenger 
on  the  train,  came  forward  and  was  presented,  while  others 
of  those  around  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  shake 
the  Chief  Executive  by  the  hand. 

A  few  moments  later  the  party  boarded  the  train,  it  being 
decide!  that  Councilman  Mathews  and  Morse  should  journey 
with  them  to  Worcester,  while  Mayor  Green  and  the  ladies 
went  as  far  as  the  Columbus-avenue  station,  returning  thence 
to  the  hotel  in  carriages.  Mr.  George  W.  Armstrong  also 
entered  the  car  as  the  railroad's  representative,  and  also  to 
look  after  the  substantial  comforts  which  had  been  provided- 
Promptly  at  11  o'clock  the  gong  sounded,  the  train  started, 
and,  amid  the  waving  of  hats,  the  Presidential  visit  became  a 
thing  of  the  past ;  and  the  last  act  in  the  Centennial  cele- 
bration of  the  birth  of  Daniel  Webster  by  the  Webster  His- 
torical Society  had  closed. 


154  SHE  WEBSTEK   CENTENNIAL. 


VI. 

OTHER   CENTENNIAL   CELEBRATIONS. 


DINNER  OF  THE   MARSHFIELD   CLUB. 

THE  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Daniel 
Webster  was  celebrated  by  a  banquet  and  speeches  at 
Parkers,  January  18,  1882,  by  the  members  of  the  Marshfield 
Club  and  their  invited  guests.  It  was  an  occasion  remarkable 
for  two  features,  sometimes  distinct  and  sometimes  blended, 
for  eloquent  eulogy  of  the  great  statesman,  and  for  calm, 
comprehensive  analyses  of  his  ability  and  of  the  service 
which  he  rendered  to  the  country.  It  was  the  latter  feature 
which  made  the  occasion  of  value.  From  every  eulogy  the 
ordinary  listener  naturally,  and  usually  with  justice,  makes 
a  discount ;  but  a  dispassionate  estimate  of  a  man's  ability 
which  sets  him  over  against  a  nation,  and  shows  how  he  has 
rendered  it  an  inestimable  and  unique  service,  moves  even 
the  indifferent  listener.  Such  criticism  was  passed  upon  the 
services  of  Webster,  and  as  the  long  account  to  his  credit 
was  rolled  up,  with  the  nation  as  debtor,  he  seemed  to  tower 
above  all  men  of  his  time.  The  speakers  included  the  best 
of  Massachusetts  ;  their  theme  was  the  greatest  of  American 
statesmen,  and  as  a  result  of  their  words  a  new  impetus  will 
doubtless  be  given  to  the  reading  of  his  masterly  speeches 
and  to  a  study  of  his  statesmanship,  while  his  oracular  say- 
ings may  fall  with  greater  weight  than  ever.  Mayor  Prince, 
who  presided  at  the  dinner,  invited  the  late  ex-Governor 
Bullock  to  be  present,  and  received  his  reply  almost  at  the 
same  time  as  the  news  of  his  death.     It  ran  thus  :  — 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  155 

Worcester,  Jan.  17, 1882. 
The  Hon  Frederick  O.  Prince.  My  dear  sir,  —  I  had  the  honor  and 
pleasure  a  few  days  since  of  accepting  an  invitation  extended  to  me  by 
yourself  and  other  gentlemen  of  the  committee  to  attend  the  dinner  of 
the  Marslifield  club  on  the  18th  inst.  I  have  anticipated  the  greatest 
satisfaction  in  uniting  with  the  club  on  that  occasion  in  rendering  justice 
and  veneration  to  the  great  name  which  loses  none  of  its  proportions  in 
history  as  time  goes  on.  But  the  serious  illness  of  a  near  relative  com- 
pels me  to  forego  the  gratification  of  meeting  you.  I  remain,  with  high 
regard,  Yours  most  truly, 

Alexander  H.  Bullock. 

From  five  o'clock  for  a  half-hour  the  second  floor  at  Par- 
ker's in  the  hall  and  small  parlors  was  thronged  with  a  dis- 
tinguished company  of  gentlemen.  Dignified  men,  gray- 
haired  veterans  of  the  law  and  finance  and  the  pulpit,  young 
men  with  an  apparent  abundant  promise  of  a  middle-life 
prolific  in  work  worthy  the  example  of  the  great  man  they 
honored,  all  these  were  mingled  in  agreeable  confusion.  At 
nearly  six  the  company  passed  by  twos  into  the  handsome 
dining-room,  ex-Mayor  Prince  and  the  Hon.  Eobert  C. 
Winthrop  leading  the  way.  The  room,  with  its  walls  of 
mirrors  set  in  their  white  and  gold  ^frames  of  Corinthian 
columns,  and  with  its  ceiling  brightly  adorned  with  the  em- 
blems of  many  nations,  was  a  scene  of  living  colors.  Along 
the  tables  double  trains  of  smilax  held  between  them  fre- 
quent bouquets  of  red  and  white  roses.  Red  and  white 
glasses  in  their  delicate  shapes  added  the  superior  art  in  form 
to  the  art  of  the  cook.  Hanging  in  festoons  from  each  of 
the  three  chandeliers,  sparkling  with  their  profusion  of  glass 
pendants,  were  bright  vines  of  smilax,  and  at  the  lowest 
point  of  the  graceful  curve  was  a  full-blown  red  rose.  Cen- 
tral under  each  chandelier  was  a  flying  dove,  bearing  in  its 
bill  a  spray  of  smilax,  as  if  it  were  an  emblem  of  peace  and 
joy.  Most  to  be  noticed  of  all  the  ornaments  of  the  room, 
however,  were  the  two  portraits  of  Webster,  painted  by 
Joseph  Ames.     At  the  head  of  the  room  was  that  striking 


156 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL, 


portrait,  three-quarters  length,  draped  on  each  side  with  a 
national  flag,  and  opposite  to  it,  at  the  other  end  of  the  hall, 
was  the  half-length  portrait,  strong  and  massive,  similarly 
draped.  Ex-Mayor  Prince  sat  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and 
on  his  right  were  Gov.  Long,  Mayor  Green  and  William 
Amory,  Esq.  ;  on  his  left  were  Gov.  Bell,  of  New  Hampshire, 
and  Franklin  Haven,  Esq.  Down  the  outside  of  the  tables 
the  order  was  as  follows  :  — 


G.  T.  Curtis. 
W.  W.  Greenough. 
J.  S.  Amory. 
William  Gray. 
J.  W.  Bradbury,  Me. 
H.  W.  Paine. 
Theodore  Lyman. 
E.  D.  Jordan. 
William  Aspinwall. 
E.  E    Dorr. 
W.  P.  Lee. 
General  Williamson. 
E.  S.  Spofford. 
T.  W.  Paine. 
Nahum  Capen. 
C.  P.  Thompson. 
Ellerton  Pratt. 
Charles  Merriam. 
Nathaniel  Thayer,  Jr. 
Richard  Olney. 
J.  Q.  Adams. 
Leverett  Saltonstall. 
Charles  Devens. 
T.  C.  Amory. 


G.  W.  Burnham.  N.Y. 

Marshall  P.  Wilder. 

S.  K.  Lothrop. 

H.  K.  Oliver. 

J.  C.  Park. 

H.  X.  Hudson. 

XL  A.  Whitney. 

F.  M.  Weld. 

G.  P.  Minot. 
Jo  S.  Fay. 
George  Lunt. 
J.  II  Carlton. 
Thomas  Sanders. 
Joseph  Burnett. 
Sigourney  Butler. 
F.  I.  Amory. 

A.  T.  Perkins. 
Franklin  Haven,  Jr. 
E.  Peirson  Beebe. 
J.  M.  Brown. 
C.  L.  Woodbury. 
Alex.  Coehran. 
Lemuel  Shaw. 
C.  W.  Jones,  of  Florida. 


Down  the  inside  of  the  tables  the  order  was  as  follows  :  — 


Isaac  Thaeher. 
Aaron  Hobart. 
J.  S.  Walker. 
Edward  Stanwood. 
E.  B.  Haskell. 
E.  II.  Clement. 
J.  M.  Keith. 
L.  W.  Tappan. 
S.  H.  Gookin. 


C.  L.  Flint. 
L.  Farnham. 
C.  H.  Taylor. 
F.  C.  Sanford. 
B.  F.  Stevens. 
J.  C.  Jordan. 
H.  Dumoresq. 
J.  A.  Gordon. 
Peter  Butler. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  157 

J.  E.  Russell.  T.  H.  Clay. 

John  Jeffries.  W.  VV.  Swan. 

John  D.  Bates.  S.  A.  B.  Abbott. 

Edward  Burnett,  H.  B.  Breek. 

Richard  Saltonstall.  T.  L.  Jenks. 

L.  S.  Tuckerman.  S.  J.  Thomas. 

C.  A.  Prince.  E.  I.  Thomas. 

R.  D.  Smith.  Chandler  Bobbins. 

S.  G.  Snelling.  George  Gardner. 

F.  L.  Ames.  Richard  Sullivan. 

Robert  Codman.  W.  A.  Field 
Wiit  Dexter. 

The  bill  of  fare  of  the  dinner  was  elegant  in  typography, 
beautiful  in  its  engraver's  art,  and  valuable  as  an  historical 
reproduction  of  the  two  noted  Webster  homesteads.  It  was 
a  quarto  menu.  Upon  the  first  page  were  the  words, 
"Marshfield  club,  January  18,  1882,"  in  handsome  script. 
Over  the  page  was  an  excellent  steel  portrait  of  Webster 
over  his  signature  in  fac-simile.  Under  this  was,  "1782- 
1882.  Vera  pro  gratis.'"  The  next  page,  in  large  script, 
read,  "  Commemoration  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  birth  of  Daniel  Webster,  by  the  Marshfield  club,  at  the 
Parker  house,  Boston,  January  18,  1882."  Page  four  con- 
tained the  menu,  and  opposite  it  was  an  excellent  steel  plate 
of  the  old  Webster  homestead  in  Salisbury,  N.H.,  where 
Webster  was  born.  It  was  a  perfect  reproduction  of  the 
type  of  New  England  country  homes  which  are  even  now  so 
familiar  upon  the  hills  of  this  and  our  neighboring  States. 
On  the  last  leaf  was  a  clearly  cut  steel  engraving  of  the 
Webster  home  at  Green  Harbor,  Marshfield.  This  fine 
artistic  production  was  from  the  house  of  Messrs.  John  A. 
Lowell  &  Co.     The  list  of  edibles  spread  is  as  follows  ;  — 


158  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

MENU. 

Oysters  on  shell. 

Soup. 

Cream  Asparagus.  Consomme. 

Fish. 

Chicken  Halibut  a  la  creme.        Smelt  a  la  Tartar. 

Entree. 

Chicken  Cutlets.  Sweetbreads. 

Remove. 

Saddle  Kentucky  Mutton. 

Sirloin  Beef. 

Beleve. 

Roman  Punch. 

Game. 

Canvas  Back  Duck.        Red  Head  Duck.        Larded  Quail. 

Sweets. 

Omelette  Souffle.        Wine  Jelly.        Charlotte  Russe. 

Roquefort.        Brie.        Cheese.        Olives. 

Fruit.        Ice  Cream.     Sherbet. 

Coffee. 

It  was  a  little  after  eight  when  ex-Mayor' Prince  called  the 
company  to  order  for  the  after-dinner  speeches,  and  the  last 
speech  was  not  ended  till  half-past  eleven. 


EX-MAYOR  PRINCE'S  ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen  of  the  Marshfield  Club,  guests  of  the  Club: 

We*  have  come  together  this  evening  to  indulge  a  sentiment 
so  common  and  natural  that  it  finds  expression  in  every 
community,  civilized  or  uncivilized,  ancient  or  modern.  I 
allude  to  that  sentiment  which  prompts  us  to  commemorate 
the  talents,  virtues  and  services  of  the  benefactors  of  man- 
kind. We  perpetuate  by  some  of  the  forms  of  plastic  art  — 
by  monuments  of  stone  or  bronze,  by  painting  or  sculpture, 
by  oratory  or  poetry  —  the  great  men  of  their  age  — 

"  One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names, 
That  were  not  born  to  die.7' 

Of  these  was  Daniel  Webster ;  for  whatever  differences  of 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  159 

opinion  may  have  obtained,  or  may  still  obtain,  touching 
some  of  his  views  on  political  questions,  it  must  be  conceded 
by  all  .whose  capacity  to  appreciate  truth  is  not  disturbed  by 
prejudice  or  passion,  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable, 
one  of  the  greatest,  men  the  country  has  produced  —  a  true 
representative  of  all  that  is  grand  in  the  American  character. 
There  was  nothing  dwarfed  in  his  composition.  No  part  of 
him  was  developed  to  the  injury  of  some  other  part.  His 
intellectual  growth  and  his  moral  growth  were  equally  com- 
plete. We  may  not  apply  to  him  the  epithet  —  "  godlike  "  — 
so  often  used  by  his  adoring  friends  ;  but  we  can  with  truth 
assert,  in  the  words  of  Hamlet,  that 

"  lie  was  a  man  —  take  him  for  all  in  all, 
I  shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again." 

His  broad  and  comprehensive  understanding,  his  great 
logical  capacity,  his  remarkable  power  of  analysis,  his  con- 
centrativeness  and  constructiveness,  enabled  him  to  master 
every  subject  which  received  his  attention  ;  so  that  he  became 
a  profound  jurist,  a  powerful  advocate,  an  unsurpassed 
orator,  a  skilful  diplomatist  and  a  consummate  statesman. 
When  we  remember  the  eminence  Mr.  Webster  attained  as 
a  lawyer,  and  especially  as  a  constitutional  lawyer ;  when 
we  recall  his  skill  and  capacity  in  the  elucidation  of  those 
grave  questions  resulting  from  the  peculiar  relations  of  the 
federal  government  to  the  States  and  the  States  to  the  gov- 
ernment, his  accurate  comprehension  of  the  true  principles 
of  finance,  his  clear  perception  of  what  should  be  the  charac- 
ter of  our  domestic  and  foreign  policy,  his  sagacious  antici- 
pation of  the  political  future,  immediate  or  distant,  his 
prophetic  discernment  of  the  result  of  the  full  development 
of  the  American  system,  we  are  disposed  to  say  of  him,  what 
the  Roman  historian  said  of  the  great  Roman  statesman,  that 
his  versatile  genius  was  so  fitted  to  all  uses  he  seemed  to 
have  been  born  for  whatever  he  undertook. 


160  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Such  was  the  general  judgment  of  his  contemporaries,  and 
such  is  the  judgment  of  the  country  to-day ;  for  time,  which 
disturbs  so  often  and  so  largely  the  fame  of  so  many  who 
were  deemed  great  in  their  day  and  generation,  takes  noth- 
ing from  Webster.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  not  extravagant 
to  say  that  his  fame  increases  as  the  years  go  by  —  vires 
acquirit  eundo  —  for  he  was  one  of  those  rare  men  who  are 
best  seen  and  appreciated  from  a  distance  of  time  —  as  some 
great  natural  objects,  like  the  Pyramids,  are  best  seen  and 
appreciated  from  a  distance  of  space.  If  we  are  too  near  the 
latter,  we  cannot  know  their  just  proportions  ;  if  we  are  too 
near  the  former,  Ave  cannot  understand  their  just  relations 
to  nor  their  exact  influence  on  contemporaneous  events.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  conjecture  what  the  great  intellect 
of  Webster  might  have  accomplished  if  a  change  of  circum- 
stances had  led  him  to  other  fields  of  mental  labor  ;  if  he  had 
devoted  himself  to  the  sciences,  natural  or  moral,  to  meta- 
physics, to  philosophy,  to  history  or  literature.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  imagine  how  he  would  have  developed,  and 
what  he  would  have  achieved,  if  he  had  been  born  and  lived, 
under  a  different  form  of  government.  But  the  occasion 
does  not  permit  us  to  indulge  in  such  speculation. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  speak  in  this  presence  of  the  life  and 
character  of  Webster,  of  his  public  services,  and  his  place  in 
the  Pantheon  of  illustrious  Americans  ;  Choate,  and  Everett, 
and  Gushing,  and  Evarts,  and  Winthrop,  and  our  lamented 
brother,  the  eloquent  Hillard,  and  other  distinguished  schol- 
ars have  already  expressed  the  opinions  of  the  country  on 
this  great  theme.  Mr.  Webster's  fame  requires  no  further 
eulogiums  for  its  security.  But  it  is  always  pleasant  to  re- 
peat the  praises  of  those  we  venerate,  and  as  such  rehearsal 
is  fitting  and  appropriate  on  occasions  like  this,  you  will  be 
addressed  by  those  whom  you  will  be  glad  to  hear,  for  they 
appreciate  the  great  statesman. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  161 

Before  I  introduce  them,  permit  me  to  refer  for  a  moment 
to  one  particular  debt  of  gratitude  which  the  country  owes 
him.     We   succeeded  in    maintaining   the    integrity  of  the 
Union  by  appealing  to  that  sentiment  of  patriotism  which 
comes  from  nationalism,  from  political  unity  as  opposed  to 
mere  confederation  and  political  connection.     I  claim  for  Mr. 
Webster  that  he  created  to  a  great  extent  this  sentiment  by 
his  intepretation  of  the  Constitution.     Before  his  comment- 
aries on  this  instrument  there  was  in  the  public  mind  no  clear 
and  discriminating  distinction  between  the  powers  properly 
belonging  thereunder  to  the  general  government,  and  those 
undelegated  reserved  rights  which  remained  to  the  States. 
The  relation  of  these  sovereignties  to  each  other  was  only 
imperfectly  understood.     No  such  confederation  as  produced 
a  "  national  union "  had  ever  before  been  organized  in  an- 
cient or  modern  times.     There  had  been  confederations  like 
those  of  ancient  Greece  and  Switzerland,  but  such  organiza- 
tions  were  merely  compacts  for   certain    limited    purposes. 
They  did  not  create  that  M  perfect  union,"  that  individuality 
which  makes  the  people  one  people,  with  common  political 
interests  and  a  common  political  destiny,  and  fills  and  ani- 
mates the  whole  country  with  the  spirit  and  passion  of  an 
uncompromising,  unyielding  and  absorbing  patriotism.     Our 
glorious  Constitution  would  not  have  accomplished  this  happy 
result  if  the  great  expounder  had  not,  through  his  masterly 
appreciation    of  this    beautiful    political    conception    of  the 
fathers,  demonstrated  its  true  nature  and  character.     If  the 
people  had  believed  that  the  United  States  were  a  mere  po- 
litical league,  and  not  a  "National  Union,'' there  could  have 
been  no  general  sentiment  that  the  government  was  a  com- 
mon government ;   that  the  country,  however  divided  into 
States  for  local  purposes,  was  still  a  common  country,  with 
a  common  flag,  so  that  any  assault  thereon  was  rebellion  and 


162  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

treason,  which  the  people  of  all  sections  were  bound  by  loy- 
alty and  patriotism  to  repel. 

The  great  statesman,  in  all  his  addresses  and  speeches,  in 
all  that  he  wrote  and  said  on  public  affairs,  constantly  argued 
for  the  Union,  the  "  Union  now  and  forever,  one  and  insepa- 
rable." His  generation  and  the  generation  which  saved  the 
Union  were  thus  fully  imbued  with  the  conviction  of  its  indis- 
solubility, and  the  duty  ofmaintaining.it.  When,  therefore, 
the  government  called  the  people  to  arms  in  its  defence, 
millions  responded  to  the  call ;  and,  not  as  sons  of  the  several 
States,  not  as  citizens  of  several  sovereignties,  but  as  Amer- 
icans, as  children  of  one  country,  they  marched  against 
rebellion.  Mr.  Webster's  construction  of  the  Constitution 
will  never  be  changed,  for  it  has  been  confirmed  by  the  im- 
mutable, irreversible  decrees  of  battle  and  victory.  Born 
one  hundred  years  ago  to-day,  he  sleeps  by  the  side  of  the 
sea  he  loved  so  well.  Yet  he  "still  lives,"  for  he  cannot  be 
forgotten  while  patriotism,  faith  in  popular  government, 
faith  in  Kepublican  institutions,  pride  of  country  and  the  love 
of  man  for  man  shall  continue  to  animate  the  American  heart. 
As  he  embraced,  not  a  part  merely,  not  a  section,  but  the 
whole  country,  in  his  affections,  his  memory  will  be  cher- 
ished by  the  whole  people.  He  "still  lives,"  for  he  cannot 
die  —  the  dead  survive  in  the  recollection  of  the  living. 

Vita  enim  mortuorum  in  memorid  vivorum  posita  est. 


REMARKS   OF  GOVERNOR  LONG. 

It  is  but  a  poor  tribute  that  even  the  most  eloquent  voice, 

least  of  all  mine,  can  pay  for  Massachusetts  to  the  memory 

of  her  greatest  statesman,  her  mightiest   intellect  and  her 

most  powerful  orator.     Among  her  sons  he  towers  like  the 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  163 

lonely  and  massive  shaft  on  Bunker  Hill,  upon  the  base  and 
the  crest  of  which  his  name  is  emblazoned  clearer  than  if 
chiselled  deep  in  its  granite  cubes.  For  years  he  was  her 
synonym.  Among  the  States  he  sustained  her  at  that  proud 
height  which  Winthrop  and  Sam  Adams  gave  her  in  the 
colonial  and  provincial  days.  With  what  matchless  grandeur 
he  defended  her !  With  what  overwhelming  power  he  im- 
pressed her  convictions  upon  the  national  life  !  God  seems 
to  appoint  men  to  special  work,  and,  that  done,  the  very 
effort  of  its  achievement  exhausts  them,  and  they  rise  not 
again  to  the  summit  of  their  meridian.  So  it  was  with 
Webster.  He  knows  little  even  of  written  constitutions  and 
frames  of  government  who  does  not  know  that  they  exist 
almost  less  in  the  letter  than  in  the  interpretation  and  con- 
struction of  the  letter.  In  this  light  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  it  existed 
when  it  carried  our  country  through  the  greatest  peril  that 
ever  tested  it,  was  the  crystallization  of  the  mind  of  Webster 
as  well  as  of  its  original  framers.  It  came  from  them,  and 
was  only  accepted  by  some  of  our  own  as  a  compact  of 
States,  sovereign  in  all  but  certain  enumerated  powers  dele- 
gated to  a  central  government.  He  made  it  the  crucible  of 
a  welded  Union  —  the  charter  of  one  great  country,  the 
United  States  of  America.  He  made  the  States  a  nation, 
and  enfolded  them  in  its  single  banner.  It  was  the  over- 
whelming logic  of  his  discussion,  the  household  familiarity 
of  his  simple  but  irresistible  statement,  that  gave  us  munition 
to  fight  the  war  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union  and  the 
abolition  of  slavery.  It  was  his  eloquence,  clear  as  crystal, 
and  precipitating  itself  in  the  school-books  and  literature  of  a 
people,  which  had  trained  up  the  generation  of  twenty  years 
ago  to  regard  this  nation  as  one,  to  love  its  flag  with  a  pat- 
riotism that  knew  no  faction  or  section,  to  be  loyal  to  the 
whole  country,  and  to  find  in  its  Constitution  power  to  sup- 


164  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

press  any  hand  or  combination  raised  against  it.  The  great 
rebellion  of  1861  went  down  hardly  more  before  the  cannon 
of  Grant  and  Farragut  than  the  thunder  of  Webster's  reply 
to  Hayne.  He  knew  not  the  extent  of  his  own  achievement. 
His  greatest  failure  was  that  he  rose  not  to  the  height  and 
actual  stroke  of  his  own  resistless  argument,  and  that  he 
lacked  the  sublime  inspiration,  the  disentanglement  and  the 
courage,  to  let  the  giant  he  had  created  go  upon  his  errand, 
first  of  force,  and  then,  through  that,  of  surer  peace.  He 
had  put  the  work  and  the  genius  of  more  than  an  ordinary 
lifetime  of  service  into  the  arching  and  knitting  of  the  Union, 
and  this  he  could  not  bear  to  put  to  the  final  test ;  his  great 
heart  was  sincere  in  the  prayer  that  his  eyes  might  not  be- 
hold the  earthquake  that  would  shake  it  to  those  foundations 
which,  though  he  knew  it  not,  he  had  made  so  strong  that  a 
succeeding  generation  saw  them  stand  the  shock  as  the  oak 
withstands  the  storm.  Men  are  not  gods,  and  it  needed  in 
him  that  he  should  rise  to  a  moral  sublimity  and  daring  as 
lofty  as  the  intellectual  heights  above  which  he  soared  with 
unequalled  strength.     So  had  he  been  godlike. 

VA  great  man  touches  the  heart  of  the  people  as  well  as 
their  intelligence.  They  not  only  admire,  they  also  love 
him.  It  sometimes  seems  as  if  they  sought  in  him  some 
weakness  of  our  common  human  nature,  that  they  may  chide 
him  for  it,  forgive  it,  and  so  endear  him  to  themselves  the 
more.  Massachusetts  had  her  friction  with  the  younger 
Adams,  only  to  lay  him  away  with  profounder  honor,  and  to 
remember  him  devotedly  as  the  defender  of  the  right  of  peti- 
tion and  "the  old  man  eloquent."  She  forgave  the  over- 
weening conceit  of  Sumner ;  she  revoked  her  unjust  censure 
of  him,  and  now  points  her  youth  to  him  in  his  high  niche 
as  the  unsullied  patriot,  without  fear  and  without  reproach, 
who  stood  and  spoke  for  equal  rights,  and  whose  last  great 
service  was  to  demand  and  enforce  his  country's  just  claims 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  165 

against  the  dishonorable  trespass  of  the  cruisers  of  that  Eng- 
land he  had  so  much  admired.  Massachusetts  smote,  too, 
and  broke  the  heart  of  Webster,  her  idol,  and  then  broke 
her  own  above  his  grave,  and  to-day  writes  his  name  highest 
upon  her  roll  of  statesmen.  It  seems  disjointed  to  say  that, 
with  such  might  as  his,  the  impression  that  comes  from  his 
face  upon  the  wall,  as  from  his  silhouette  upon  the  back- 
ground of  our  history,  is  that  of  sadness,  —  the  sadness  of  the 
great  deep  eyes,  the  sadness  of  the  lonely  shore  he  loved,  and 
by  which  he  sleeps.  The  story  of  Webster  from  the  begin- 
ning is  the  very  pathos  of  romance.  A  minor  chord  runs 
through  it  like  the  tenderest  note  in  a  song.  What  elo- 
quence  of  tears  is  in  that  narrative,  which  reveals  in  this 
giant  of  intellectual  strength  the  heart,  the  single,  loving 
heart  of  a  child,  and  in  which  he  describes  the  winter  sleigh- 
ride  up  the  New  Hampshire  hills  when  his  father  told  him 
that,  at  whatever  cost,  he  should  have  a  college  education, 
and  he,  too  full  to  speak,  while  a  warm  glow  ran  all  over 
him,  laid  his  head  upon  his  father's  shoulder  and  wept ! 

The  greatness  of  Webster  and  his  title  to  enduring  grati- 
tude have  two  illustrations  :  He  taught  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  in  the  simplicity  of  common  understanding, 
the  principles  of  the  Constitution  and  government  of  the 
country,  and  he  wrought  for  them,  in  a  style  of  matchless 
strength  and  beauty,  the  literature  of  statesmanship.  From 
his  lips  flowed  the  discussion  of  constitutional  law,  of  econo- 
mic philosophy,  of  finance,  of  international  right,  of  national 
grandeur,  and  of  the  whole  range  of  high  public  themes,  so 
clear  and  judicial  that  it  was  no  longer  discussion,  but  judg- 
ment. To-day,  and  so  it  will  be  while  the  Republic  endures, 
the  student  and  the  legislator  turn  to  the  full  fountain  of  his 
statement  for  the  enunciation  of  these  principles.  What 
other  authority  is  quoted  or  holds  even  the  second  or  third 
place  ?     Even  his  words  have  embedded  themselves  in  the 


166  THE  WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

common  phraseology,  and  come  to  the  tongue  like  passages 
from  the  psalms  or  the  poets.  I  do  not  know  that  a  sentence 
or  a  word  of  Sumner's  repeats  itself  in  our  everyday  par- 
lance. The  exquisite  periods  of  Everett  are  recalled  like  the 
consummate  work  of  some  master  of  music,  but  no  note  or 
refrain  sings  itself  over  and  over  again  to  our  ears.  The 
brilliant  eloquence  of  Choate  is  like  the  flash  of  a  bursting 
rocket,  lingering  upon  the  retina  indeed  after  it  has  faded 
from  the  wings  of  the  night,  but  as  elusive  of  our  grasp  as 
spray-drops  tliat  glisten  in  the  sun.  The  fiery  enthusiasm 
of  Andrew  did,  indeed,  burn  some  of  his  heart-beats  forever 
into  the  sentiment  of  Massachusetts  ;  but  Webster  made  his 
language  the  very  household  words  of  a  nation.  They  are 
the  library  of  a  people.  They  inspired  and  still  inspire  pat- 
riotism. They  taught  and  still  teach  loyalty.  They  are  the 
school-book  of  the  citizen.  They  are  the  inwrought  and  ac- 
cepted fibre  of  American  politics.  If  the  temple  of  our  Re- 
public shall  ever  fall,  they  will  "still  live  "  above  the  ground 
like  those  great  foundation  stones  in  ancient  ruins,  which 
remain  in  lonely  grandeur,  unburied  in  the  dust  that  springs 
to  turf  over  all  else,  and  making  men  wonder  from  what  rare 
quarry  and  by  what  mighty  force  they  came.  To  Webster, 
almost  more  than  to  any  other  man  —  nay,  at  this  distance 
and  in.  the  generous  spirit  of  this  occasion  it  is  hard  to  dis- 
criminate among  the  lustrous  names  which  now  cluster  at  the 
gates  of  heaven,  as  the  golden  bars  mass  the  west  at  sunset 
—  yet  to  Webster  especially  of  them  all  is  it  due  that  to-day, 
wherever  a  son  of  the  United  States,  at  home  or  abroad, 
"beholds  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  Republic,, now  known 
and  honored  throughout  the  earth,  still  full  high  advanced, 
its  arms  and  trophies  streaming  in  their  original  lustre,  not  a 
stripe  erased  or  polluted,  nor  a  single  star  obscured,"  he  can 
utter  a  prouder  boast  than  Civis  Romanus  sum.  For  he  can 
say,  I  am  an  American  citizen. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  167 

ADDRESS  OF  ROBERT  C.  WINTHROP. 

I  would  most  gladly  have  been  exempted  from  this  call, 
even  at  the  cost  of  all  the  compliments  by  which  it  has  been 
accompanied.  I  heartily  wish  that  I  were  in  a  better  condi- 
tion for  making  any  adequate  response.  I  am  conscious  that 
such  occasions  belong  to  younger  men,  and  I  thought  that  I 
had  made  an  unalterable  resolution,  after  Yorktown,  that  I 
would  render  myself  responsible  for  no  more  public  ad- 
dresses. And  I  can  honestly  say  that  no  other  occasion  than 
this  would  have  brought  me  out  to-night.  But  I  could  not 
find  it  in  my  heart  to  excuse  myself  from  dining  here,  albeit 
for  the  first  time,  with  the  Marshfield  Club,  at  their  most 
kind  invitation,  in  honor  of  the  centennial  birthday  of  one 
with  whom  I  had  so  many  personal  and  so  many  public  and 
so  many  proud  associations  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and 
who,  by  his  life  and  death  and  burial,  has  made  Marshfield  a 
name  and  a  place  never  to  be  forgotten  in  the  annals  of  our 
country  or  of  the  world.  How  could  I  ever  forget  those  de- 
lightful days  which  I  spent  there  with  him,  forty  years  ago, 
more  or  less  !  His  matchless  form  rises  to  my  eye  at  this 
moment,  as  he  welcomed  the  British  minister  and  myself  at 
his  door  on  a  midsummer  morning,  clad  in  his  favorite  rustic 
suit,  with  the  broad-brimmed  white  hat  overshadowing  that 
Olympian  brow,  — just  as  he  may  be  seen  in  one  of  the  most 
characteristic  of  his  familiar  portraits.  He  was  a  subject  for 
Kembrandt  on  that  morning,  and  Kembrandt  never  had  a 
subject  more  worthy  of  his  magic  brush. 

I  remember  Avell  how  proudly  he  treated  us  to  fish  of  his 
own.  catching,  to  game  of  his  own  shooting,  to  beef  or  mut- 
ton of  his  own  raising,  and  to  vegetables  of  every  sort  from 
his  own  gardens,  with  nothing  on  his  table  from  any  other 
source  except  the  delicious  black  Hamburgs  which  grand  old 
Colonel  Perkins,  his  lifelong  and  devoted  friend,  had  just 
sent  him  from  his  greenhouse  at  Brookline.     But  his  own 


168  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

presence  and  his  own  conversation  were  the  choicest  luxuries 
we  enjoyed.  He  was  not  always  gracious  in  society,  and  at 
other  people's  tables  on  ceremonious  occasions  he  was  some- 
times reserved  and  moody.  But  he  was  the  very  prince  of 
hosts  at  his  own  board ;  on  that  occasion,  certainly,  his  rich 
reminiscences  and  sparkling  anecdotes 

"  Outdid  the  meat,  outdid  the  frolic  wine." 

And  then  I  remember  his  taking  us  out  to  see  the  results 
of  an  experiment  he  was  trying  on  the  different  fertilizers  for 
his  fields,  pointing  us  to  four  carefully  measured  and  exactly 
equal  areas  of  Indian  corn,  one  of  them  served  with  guano, 
one  with  kelp,  one  with  fish  from  his  own  shores,  and  one 
with  the  common  manure  from  his  own  barns ;  but  he  was 
as  conservative  in  his  agriculture  as  he  was  in  his  politics, 
and  unhesitatingly  gave  the  palm  to  the  old-fashioned  article. 
On  that  day  he  was  eminently  and  exclusively  the  farmer  of 
Marshfield,  discoursing  on  soils  and  climates,  on  English 
farming  and  Scotch  farming,  as  if  they  had  been  the  sole 
study  of  his  life,  and  careful  for  nothing  but  his  crops  and 
his  cattle. 

And  now,  my  friends,  Iioav  shall  I  go  on  to  speak  of  him 
more  generally,  or  how  can  I  hope  to  say  anything  about 
him  which  has  not  again  and  again  been  better  said  by  others  ? 
Webster  has  long  ago  been  the  subject  of  as  glowing  and 
as  exhaustive  tributes  as  can  be  found  in  the  English  lan- 
guage. Nobody  but  he  himself  could  surpass  the  tributes 
wdiich  his  career  has  called  forth  from  an  hundred  pens  and 
lips.  We  have  become  accustomed  of  late  to  great  public 
manifestations  at  the  death  of  our  illustrious  men.  But 
Webster's  death,  thirty  years  ago,  gave  occasion  to  lamenta- 
tions throughout  the  land,  which  no  one  then  living,  and 
now  living,  will  have  forgotten.  Every  press,  every  plat- 
form, almost  every  pulpit,  poured  forth  strains  of  the  most 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  169 

impressive  eulogy.  Living  and  dead,  he  has  been  the  theme 
of  the  most  eloquent  orators,  of  the  most  faithful  and  loving 
biographers,  of  the  most  accomplished  essayists  of  our  land. 
Everett  and  Choate  and  Hi  Hard,  as  you  have  said,  and  Presi- 
dent Felton,  of  Harvard,  and  President  Woods,  of  Bowdoin, 
and  more  recently,  Mr.  Evarts,  —  to  name  no  others,  —  have 
found  in  him  the  inspiration  of  some  of  their  most  celebrated 
efforts.  I  thank  you  for  reminding  the  company  that  I 
united  with  Mr.  Evarts,  four  or  five  years  ago,  in  a  sincere 
and  earnest  attempt  to  say  of  him  whatever  was  truest  and 
best,  at  the  unveiling  of  that  grand  heroic  statue  in  Central 
park,  presented  to  the  city  of  New  York  so  munificently  by 
one  whom  we  are  all  glad  to  see  present  on  this  occasion. 
There  is  nothing  which  I  desire  to  alter  in  that  tribute,  and 
there  is  but  little  for  me  to  add. 

And  after  all,  Mr.  President,  what  are  all  the  fine  things 
which  have  ever  been  said  of  him,  or  which  ever  can  be  said 
of  him,  to-night  or  a  hundred  years  hence,  compared  with 
the  splendid  record  which  he  has  left  of  himself,  as  an  advo- 
cate in  the  courts,  as  a  debater  in  the  Senate,  as  an  orator 
before  the  people  ?  We  do  not  search  out  for  what  was  said 
about  Pericles  or  Demosthenes  or  Cicero  or  Burke.  It  is 
enough  for  us  to  read  their  orations.  There  are  those,  in- 
deed, who  may  justly  desire  to  be  measured  by  the  momen- 
tary opinions  which  others  have  formed  and  expressed  about 
them.  There  are  not  a  few  who  may  well  be  content  to  live 
on  the  applauses  and  praises  which  their  efforts  have  called 
forth  from  immediate  hearers  and  admirers.  They  will  enjoy 
at  least  a  reflected  and  traditional  fame.  But  Webster  will 
always  stand  safest  and  strongest  on  his  own  showing.  His 
fame  will  be  independent  of  praise  or  dispraise  from  other 
men's  lips.  He  can  be  measured  to  his  full  altitude  as  a 
thinker,  a  writer,  a  speaker,  only  by  the  standard  of  his  own 
immortal  productions.     That  masterly  style,  that  pure  Saxon 


170  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

English,  that  clear  and  cogent  statement,  that  close  and 
clinching  logic,  that  power  of  going  down  to  the  depths  and 
up  to  the  heights  of  any  great  argument,  letting  the  immate- 
rial or  incidental  look  out  for  itself,  those  vivid  descriptions, 
those  magnificent  metaphors,  those  thrilling  appeals  —  not 
introduced  as  mere  ornaments  wrought  out  in  advance  and 
stored  up  for  an  opportunity  of  display,  but  sparkling  and 
blazing  out  in  the  very  heat  of  an  effort,  like  gems  uncover- 
ing themselves  in  the  working  of  a  mine — -these  are  some 
of  the  characteristics  which  will  secure  for  Webster  a  fame 
altogether  his  own,  and  will  make  his  works  a  model  and  a 
study,  long  after  most  of  those  who  have  praised  him,  or 
who  have  censured  him,  shall  be  forgotten. 

What  if  those  six  noble  volumes  of  his  were  obliterated 
from  the  roll  of  American  literature  and  American  eloquence  ! 
What  if  those  great  speeches,  recently  issued  in  a  single 
compendious  volume,  had  no  existence  !  What  if  those  con- 
summate defences  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  had 
never  been  uttered,  and  their  instruction  and  inspiration  had 
been  lost  to  us  during  the  fearful  ordeal  to  which  that  Con- 
stitution and  that  Union  have  since  been  subjected  !  Are  we 
quite  sure  that  we  should  have  had  that  Constitution  as  it 
was,  and  the  Union  as  it  is,  to  be  fought  for,  if  the  birth 
we  are  commemorating  had  never  occurred  —  if  that  bright 
Northern  star  had  never  gleamed  above  the  hills  of  New 
Hampshire?  Let  it  be,  if  you  please,  that  its  light  was  not 
always  serene  and  steady.  Let  it  be  that  mist  and  clouds 
sometimes  gathered  over  its  disc,  and  hid  its  guiding  rays 
from  many  a  wistful  eye.  Say,  even,  if  you  will,  that  to 
some  eyes  it  seemed  once  to  be  shooting  madly  from  its 
sphere.  Make  every  deduction  which  his  bitterest  enemies 
have  ever  made  for  any  alleged  deviation  from  the  course 
which  he  has  marked  out  for  it  by  others,  or  which  it  seemed 
to  have  marked  out  for  itself,  in  its  path  across  the  sky. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  171 

Still,  still  there  is  radiance  and  glory  enough  left,  as  we  con- 
template its  whole  golcen  track,  to  make  us  feel  and  acknowl- 
edge that  it  had  no  fellow  in  our  firmament.     We  did  not 
always  agree  with  Mr.  Webster.     I  certainly  did  not,  for 
one.     It  seems  but  yesterday  that,  coming  out  of  church  of 
a  Sunday  morning  at  Washington,  where  for  many  months 
he  had  sat  in  my  own  pew  —  and  a  more  humble  and  devout 
worshipper  I  have  never  seen  —  and  when  he  had  kindly 
informed   me .  that   letters  from   Boston   announced   that   I 
should  be  in  the  Senate  as  his  successor,  the  next  day  —  as  I 
was  —  I  told  him  of  my  regret  that  I  could  not  vote  altogether 
as  he  might  have  voted,  and  avowed  my  purpose  to  support 
in  the  Senate  the  policy  I  had  advocated  in  the  House.    I  am 
not  quite  sure  that  the  Marshfield  Club  would  have  welcomed 
me  as  a  guest  about  that  time.     But  I  rejoice  to  remember 
that  no  admiration  or  affection  for  him  —  and  I  was  conscious 
of  the  magnetism  of  both  —  overcame  the  strength  of  my 
own  conscientious  convictions.     But  did  I  imagine  that  his 
great  mind  had  no  convictions  of  its  own,  and  that  a  poor 
miserable  seeking  for  the  Presidency  was  the  only  motive 
which  actuated  him  ?     Never  for  a  moment.     Did  I  sympa- 
thize with  all  or  any  of  the  violent  denunciations  which  were 
poured  out  against  him  in  so  many  quarters  for  his  course  in 
1850?     Never  for  an  instant.     I  deplored  them  all,  and  did 
what  I  could  to  avert  them.     But  charitable  construction  was 
an  unknown  element  in  the  party  politics  of  that  period,  and 
not  on  one  side  only,  but  on  all  sides.     The  fugitive  slave 
law  —  which  I  am  always  more  than  willing  to  remember 
that,  in  the  shape  in  which  it  was  forced  upon  us,  I  voted 
against,  and  which  Webster  and  Clay  would  gladly  have  had 
modified  before  its  passage  —  had  maddened  the  whole  coun- 
try.    Then  was  fulfilled  for  Webster,  if  for  nobody  else,  the 
saying  of  Milton  in  the  Agonistes  : 


172  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Fame,  if  not  double-faced,  is  double-mouthed, 
And  with  contrary  blast  proclaims  most  deeds ; 
On  both  her  wings,  one  black  the  other  white, 
Bears  greatest  names  in  her  wild  aery  flight. 

Let  us  rejoice,  my  friends,  that  on  the  white  wing  only, 
on  this  centennial  birthday,  his  name  is  now  cleaving  the 
clouds.  It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  consider  him  to 
have  been  infallible  or  immaculate.  He  would  have  rebuked 
his  best  friend  for  such  an  assumption.  No  man  is  infallible. 
No  man  is  immaculate.  But  his  faults  and  failings,  such  as 
they  were,  have  often  been  grossly  exaggerated  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  I  am  glad  of  an  opportunity  of  saying  so,  as  a 
close  witness  of  a  large  part  of  his  career.  Meantime,  no 
nobler  testimony  can  be  found  in  our  language,  or  in  any 
language,  than  that  which  he  has  borne,  as  often  as  he  could 
find  an  occasion,  or  could  make  an  occasion,  in  life  or  at 
death,  to  the  great  truths  of  the  Bible,  to  the  great  teach- 
ings of  the  Gospel,  to  religious  instruction  as  a  vital  part  of 
all  true  education,  and  to  religious  faith  as  the  basis  of  all 
true  morality. 

Webster  had  great  associates  in  the  Senate  —  I  will  not 
call  them  competitors  or  rivals  —  Clay,  Calhoun  —  I  need  not 
even  name  them,  for  their  names  are  fresh  in  all  your  mem- 
ories. Much  less  would  I  venture  to  institute  any  compari- 
son between  them  and  him.  In  some  respects,  indeed,  he 
was  incomparable.  He  was  a  man  of  his  own  type  ;  as  indi- 
vidual and  unique,  intellectually  and  physically,  as  the  great 
Napoleon,  or  as  our  own  Franklin  ;  cast  in  a  mould  of  which 
there  has  been  no  other  impression  in  our  part  of  the  land, 
and  of  whom  it  might  almost  he  said,  as  Byron  said  of  Sheri- 
dan, that  nature  broke  the  die  in  moulding  one  such  man. 
His  name  has  been  written  on  the  mountains,  where  it  be- 
longs —  on  one  of  the  grandest  mountains  of  his  native  State. 
There  it  will  endure,  and  find  fit  companionship  with  the 


THE   WEBSTEli   CENTENNIAL.  173 

Adamses  and  JefFersons  and  Madisons,  and  with  Washington 
in  the  clear,  upper  sky  above  them  all.  And  until  those 
mountains  shall  depart  and  those  hills  be  removed,  it  will  be 
accepted  and  recognized  as  the  very  synonym  of  the  most 
powerful  American  mind,  as  well  as  the  most  impressive 
American  presence,  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived  and  acted. 
All  honor  to  that  name  ! 


ADDRESS  OF  MAYOR  GREEX. 
It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  say,  in  my  representative 
capacity,  that  the  city  of  Boston  most  cordially  joins  with 
the  Marshfield  Club  in  celebrating  the  centennial  anniversary 
of  Mr.  Webster's  birth.  The  memories  of  her  great  men  are 
among  the  proudest  treasures  of  Boston,  and  she  guards 
them  with  jealous  care.  In  the  presence  of  this  distinguished 
assemblage,  of  which  many  were  the  personal  friends  of  Mr. 
Webster,  it  would  be  presumption  in  me  to  attempt  an  analy- 
sis of  his  character.  A  son  of  New  Hampshire  by  birth,  a 
son  of  Massachusstts  by  adoption,  but  in  his  feelings  and 
sympathies  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Webster 
stood  on  all  occasions  for  the  whole  country.  His  fame  and 
reputation  rest  to-day  on  a  foundation  as  solid  as  that  of  the 
granite  hills  of  his  native  State.  It  is  well  to  note  the  lives 
of  great  men,  as  they  form  epochs  in  our  history  ;  and  the 
due  observance  of  such  events  tend  to  kindle  anew,  through- 
out our  national  limits,  the  fire  of  patriotic  ardor.  As  the 
chief  executive  officer  of  Boston,  I  extend  to  you,  Mr.  Pres- 
ident, and  through  you  to  the  members  of  this  association, 
her  heartiest  and  warmest  congratulations  on  this  occasion. 


174  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

The  President. — New  Hampshire,  if  she  did  not  keep 
her  distinguished  son  to  herself,  can  claim  that  he  was  loyal 
to  her  and  to  her  institutions,  he  having  kept  to  the  last  in 
affectionate  remembrance  her  granite  walls,  her  green  hills, 
her  cloud-capped  mountains,  the  rivers  whose  murmur  lulled 
the  sleep  in  his  cradle,  the  old  hearth-stone,  the  grave  of  his 
father  and  his  mother.  I  trust  the  Governor  of  the  State  he 
so  loved  will  not  re-Bell  if  I  ask  him  to  endorse  these  senti- 
ments. 


ADDRESS  OF  GOVERNOR  BELL  OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

I  am  glad  to  know  that  there  are  other  representatives  of 
New  Hampshire  by  birth,  if  not  by  residence,  present,  whose 
standing,  abilities  and  acquaintance  with  the  great  man 
whose  birth  we  are  assembled  to  commemorate,  peculiarly 
quality  them  to  address  you  in  a  manner  befitting  the  occa- 
sion.    My  shortcomings  they  will  amply  redeem. 

Yet  I  do  not  hesitate  to  respond  to  your  call.  Indeed, 
what  citizen  of  New  Hampshire  is  to  be  found  who  would 
keep  silence  when  summoned  to  declare  his  profound  respect 
and  attachment  to  the  memory  of  Daniel  Webster  ? 

In  the  few  words  which  I  have  to  say  I  shall  not  presume 
to  attempt  a  portrayal  or  analysis  of  the  transcendent  powers 
which  gave  Mr.  Webster  his  exalted  position.  It  will  be 
my  task  simply  to  point  out  to  your  notice  the  peculiar  rela- 
tions he  sustained  to  New  Hampshire,  and  which  rendered 
him  especially  near  and  dear  to  her  people. 

He  was  bone  of  her  bone  and  flesh  of  her  flesh.  Four 
generations  of  his  ancestors  had  lived  and  died  on  her  soil. 
He  was  born  and  cradled  amid  her  granite  hills,  and,  like  the 
Switzer,  inhaled  with  his  native  air  the  love  of  liberty  and 
the  love  of  home.  From  the  lips  of  the  hardy  frontiersmen 
of  New  Hampshire  who   had   fought  the  wily  savage  and 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  175 

borne  arms  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  he  learned  the 
lessons  of  courage  and  patriotism.  In  the  district  school  of 
New  Hampshire  he  gained  the  rudiments  of  knowledge ;  in 
her  higher  seminaries  of  learning  he  fitted  himself  to  enter 
upon  that  great  part  in  life  which  he  was  destined  to  fill.  In 
the  courts  of  New  Hampshire  he  became  skilful  in  the  use  of 
the  lawyer's  weapons  ;  in  her  political  service  he  measured 
himself  with  the  foremost  men  in  the  nation  on  the  floor  of 
Congress.  One  half  of  his  lifetime  he  lived  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  he  did  not  remove  away  until  he  had  won  a  na- 
tional reputation  at  the  bar  and  in  the  halls  of  legislation. 

In  my  own  town  of  Exeter  the  memory  of  Webster  is  es- 
pecially cherished.  It  was  there,  in  the  celebrated  classical 
school,  founded  in  the  year  after  his  birth  and  now  approach- 
ing its  centenary,  that  he  first  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  a 
higher  instruction  than  the  common  schools  afforded.  In 
that  atmosphere  of  learning  and  refinement,  under  the  en- 
couragement of  admiring  and  sympathetic  teachers,  his  won- 
derful powers  of  mind  expanded  and  blossomed,  like  flowers 
in  the  genial  sunlight.  His  classmates  were  speedily  left 
behind.  "Look  your  last  upon  Webster,"  said  the  usher,  as 
he  removed  him  to  a  higher  room  :  "  you  will  never  see  him 
again."  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  youth,  in  the  whole  history 
of  the  academy,  ever  derived  greater  benefits  from  the  insti- 
tution planted  by  the  wise  beneficence  of  John  Phillips,  than 
did  young  Webster  in  his  nine  months'  attendance  there. 

But  this  was  not  the  last  of  Mr.  Webster's  connection  with 
the  Exeter  Academy.  More  than  forty  years  later,  while  he 
was  President  of  its  Board  of  Trustees,  Dr.  Benjamin  Abbott, 
his  old  master,  surrendered  the  charge  of  the  school  he  had 
governed  faithfully  and  with  wonderful  success  for  half  a 
century.  At  the  festival  given  in  his  honor  Mr.  Webster, 
then  in  the  zenith  of  his  fame,  presided.  His  address  con- 
tained a  merited  tribute  to  the  services  and  virtues  of  the 


176  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

venerable  retiring  principal,  and  also  proclaimed,  in  eloquent 
language  that  reached  the  hearts  of  his  audience,  his  own 
obligations  and  attachment  to  the  seminary  where  his  powers 
received  their  early  development. 

Phillips'  Exeter  Academy  is  to-day  holding  memorial  exer- 
cises in  honor  of  her  greatest  pupil. 

Dartmouth  College  at  Hanover,  N.H.,  holds  the  name  of 
Webster  in  equally  proud  remembrance.  His  progress  there 
was  not  less  wonderful  than  it  had  been  at  Exeter.  He  en- 
tered a  diffident,  ill-prepared  boy  ;  he  graduated  a  cultivated, 
matured  man.  The  alumni  of  old  Dartmouth  are  assembling 
in  the  several  cities  of  their  abode,  on  this  centennial  occa- 
sion, to  testify  their  regard  and  admiration  to  the  memory 
of  the  foremost  graduate  of  that  venerable  seat  of  learning. 

The  legal  profession,  of  New  Hampshire  point  with  a  par- 
donable pride  to  their  rolls,  graced  by  the  name  of  Daniel 
Webster.  Tradition  represents  him  as  coming  forth  from 
his  preparatory  studies,  armed  cap-a-pie  for  the  fray,  and 
winning  success  at  the  very  outset  of  his  career.  One 
account  tells  us  that  his  first  cause  was  tried  before  that  very 
able  judge,  Jeremiah  Smith,  who  was  so  impressed  with  the 
masterly  manner  in  which  he  conducted  it  as  to  remark  on 
leaving  the  court  room,  that  he  had  "never  before  met  such 
a  young  man  as  that."  Another  tradition  is  that  he  Avas  first 
engaged  as  junior  counsel  for  the  prisoner  in  a  trial  for  mur- 
der, and  that  in  his  opening  address  to  the  jury  he  stated  the 
case  so  ably  and  comprehensively  that  his  senior,  a  noted 
lawyer,  declared  that  there  was  nothing  left  for  him  to  say. 

The  old  court  house  in  Plymouth,  N.H.,  is  said  on  pretty 
good  authority  to  be  the  scene  of  his  earliest  forensic  en- 
counter, and  the  structure,  after  undergoing  many  vicissi- 
tudes, has  been  purchased  by  one  of  the  present  New  Hamp- 
shire Senators  in  Congress,  and  is  preserved  as  a  memento 
of  the  man  and  the  occasion. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  177 

Powers  like  Mr.  Webster's  were  not  permitted  long  to  re- 
main in  the  obscurity  of  a  country  village.  lie  soon  removed 
from  Boscawen,  where  he  had  temporarily  established  him- 
self, to  Portsmouth,  a  place  then  of  greater  commercial 
importance  than  now.  The  bar  of  Rockingham  County  was 
then  unequalled  in  the  country,  except  in  a  few  of  the  large 
cities,  in  the  ability  and  learning  of  its  members.  Mr.  Web- 
ster's place  in  it  was  not  long  equivocal.  A  leading  position 
was  assigned  by  common  consent,  as  soon  as  he  had  an 
opportunity  to  assert  himself. 

In  politics,  too,  the  young  counsellor  soon  came  to  the 
front.  In  the  first  year  of  the  war  of  1812  he  was  chosen  to 
represent  the  people  of  New  Hampshire  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States.  There,  as  elsewhere,  he  was  at  once  rec- 
ognized as  a  born  leader.  His  matured  views  upon  public 
affairs,  his  ability  and  his  eloquence,  combined  to  render  him 
one  of  the  foremost  men  on  that  floor. 

So  much  had  Mr.  Webster  accomplished  before  he  left 
New  Hampshire  to  take  up  his  abode  in  Massachusetts.  In- 
deed, he  could  hardly  be  said  to  leave  New  Hampshire,  for 
he  still  kept  one  foot  on  her  soil.  His  paternal  acres  of 
Elms  Farm  never  left  his  possession,  and  never  ceased  to  be 
his  other  home.  So  long  as  he  lived  he  continued  to  make 
frequent  visits  to  this  scene  of  his  childhood,  every  rock  and 
tree  of  which  was  endeared  to  his  heart  by  hallowed  asso- 
ciations. In  one  corner  of  the  home  field  lay  the  ashes  of 
his  father  and  of  his  nearest  relatives,  and  it  was  always  his 
own  wish  and  intention,  expressed  to  one  of  his  confidential 
friends,  that  his  own  remains  and  those  of  his  immediate 
family  should  be  committed  to  the  earth  at  their  side  ;  but 
the  arrangements  for  the  purpose  were  so  long  delayed  that 
they  were  never  carried  into  effect. 

It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  the  old  homestead  of  Webster 
is  since  his  death  put  to  no  unworthy  use.     It  is  to-day  an 


178  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

asylum  for  the  orphan  children  of  New  Hampshire,  where 
the  little  waifs  of  humanity  are  gathered  and  taught,  and 
kindly  cared  for,  and  put  in  the  way  to  become  useful  mem- 
bers of  society.  This  institution  owes  its  success  to  the 
benevolent  zeal  and  care  of  its  President,  who  was  a  personal 
friend  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  possessed  his  entire  confidence, 
the  venerable  Judge  George  W.  Nesmith,  whose  kindly  face 
I  had  hoped  to  see  here  to-day.  His  presence  would  have 
given  additional  interest  to  this  occasion,  for  his  capacious 
memory  is  stored  with  pleasant  reminiscences  of  his  illus- 
trious friend,  and  he  loves  to  relate  them.  I  may  add  here, 
that  he  is  the  owner  of  the  Mecca  of  New  Hampshire,  the 
spot  where  Daniel  Webster  was  born. 

The  affection  which  Mr.  Webster  always  continued  to  bear 
to  the  State  of  his  nativity  is  nowhere  better  evidenced  than 
in  his  reply  to  his  New  Hampshire  friends  and  neighbors. 
It  was  after  his  seventh-of-March  speech,  when  many  of  his 
former  supporters  were  alienated,  and  a  storm  of  bitter 
obloquy  was  beating  upon  him.  Those  who  approved  his 
course  were  giving  him  assurances  of  their  confidence  and 
support,  but  nothing  touched  his  heart  so  deeply  as  the  letter 
which  bore  the  signatures  of  his  New  Hampshire  friends  and 
neighbors. 

"  I  could  pour  out  my  heart  in  tenderness  of  feeling,"  said 
he,  "for  the  affectionate  letter  which  comes  from  you.  Ap- 
proving voices  have  been  heard  from  other  quarters,  other 
commendations  have  reached  me  ;  but  yours  comes  from  home 
—  it  is  like  the  love  of  a  family  circle." 

Strange  indeed  would  it  be  if  affection  like  this  were  not 
reciprocated  ;  strange  if  New  Hampshire  did  not  raise  her 
voice  on  this  anniversary  to  claim  her  peerless  son  as  indeed 
her  own  ! 

It  is  true  that  in  a  public  and  far  more  important  sense 
Daniel  Webster  cannot  be  claimed  as  belonging  to  any  State. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 


He  is  the  common  property  of  the  entire  country.  His  great 
services  were  bounded  by  no  sub-divisional  lines  ;  they  were 
rendered  to  the  whole  American  people.  The  idea  of  the 
Nation  was  ever  uppermost  in  his  mind.  The  fears  he  had 
for  the  future  of  the  Republic  were  from  parricidal  attempts 
to  destroy  the  Union.  His  fears  were  prophetic,  but  the 
good  providence  of  God  did  not  allow  the  nation  to  be  sun- 
dered in  twain.  If  Mr.  Webster  could  have  lived  to  witness 
the  civil  war  which  he  dreaded,  he  could  have  seen  that  his 
idea  of  the  Constitution,  as  embodied  in  his  reply  to  Hay  no 
and  to  Calhoun,  was  that  on  which  the  defenders  of  the  Union 
took  their  impregnable  stand ;  and  that  the  devotion  to  the 
Union  which  he  always  inculcated,  survived  the  long  and 
arduous  struggle,  and  was  triumphant  in  the  end.  Had  his 
life  been  prolonged  to  this  day  he  would  have  enjoyed  the 
heartfelt  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  dread  trial  surmounted, 
the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  under  Providence  assured,  and 
of  beholding  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  Republic  that  he 
apostrophized  so  beautifully,  floating  over  a  wiser,  a  reunited 
and  a  reconciled  people. 


The  President.  —  In  the  days  when  listening  Senates 
gave  their  admiring  applause  to  the  great  orator,  the  South 
declared  that  the  North  had  not  his  equal  nor  the  South  his 
superior.  We  should  like  to  know  if  the  South  still  main- 
tains that  opinion.  We  have  present  a  distinguished  son  of 
Florida,  Senator  Jones  :  will  he  please  inform  us  ? 

ADDRESS  OF  SENATOR  JONES  OF  FLORIDA. 
Gentlemen, — The  year  which  has  just  closed  has  been 
well  called  a  Centennial  year ;  for  if  we  recur  to  many  of  its 


180  THE    WEBSTER    CEXTEXXIAL. 

most  imposing  and  impressive  celebrations,  it  will  be  found 
that  they  commemorated  great  public  events  in  our  history 
occurring  one  hundred  years  before.  Yorktown,  the  Cow- 
pens,  Groton  Heights,  and  other  historic  localities  have  had 
their  day,  and  the  sieges  and  bloody  fortunes  which  distin- 
guished them  have  been  well  and  justly  commemorated.  In 
all  that  has  been  done  to  keep  alive  the  memories  of  the  past 
during  the  year  just  terminated,  it  is  impossible  to  overlook 
the  great  prominence  given  to  the  military  history  of  our 
country,  and  the  great  names  connected  with  it.  But  the 
new  year  opens  upon  us  and  brings  to  our  minds  an  event 
not  of  a  military  character,  but  which,  for  consequences  the 
most  far-reaching  and  important  to  the  interests  of  this  great 
country,  is  inferior  to  no  event  in  our  annals.  The  birth  of 
an  individual  under  ordinary  circumstances  has  but  little  in- 
fluence on  the  affairs  of  a  great  nation.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  souls  come  in  and  go  out  of  life  whose  names  and 
fortunes  never  interest  or  concern  any  one  outside  of  their 
own  natural  relations.  But  occasionally  an  individual  comes 
among  us  as  if  delegated  by  the  power  of  the  Almighty  to 
exercise  a  controlling  influence  and  authority  over  the  for- 
tunes and  destinies  of  men.  Under  other  systems  of  govern- 
ment, where  rank  and  caste,  independent  of  individual  talent 
and  character,  often  give  prominence  and  power,  the  road  to 
eminence  is  not  so  difficult  to  travel  at  times  as  it  is  here. 
There,  many  men  are  born  to  distinction,  and  oftentimes  the 
most  ordinary  powers  and  abilities  are,  without  effort  or  ex- 
ertion, placed  in  control  of  the  highest  offices  in  the  State. 
The  genius  of  our  government  has  wisely  and  justly  pro- 
vided for  no  distinctions  among  the  children  of  men,  except 
what  they  can  secure  from  the  people  by  their  own  talents 
and  character.  And  the  very  best  commentary  that  can  be 
passed  upon  our  institutions,  and  the  best  claim  they  can  put 
forth  for  the  support  of  the  people  through  all  time,  is  in  the 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  181 

grand  opportunities  which  they  afford  to  all  classes  of  citizens 
without  discrimination  or  favor,  to  share  in  the  highest 
honors  and  emoluments  of  the  State.  Whatever  may  be  said 
against  us  in  other  respects,  no  candid  mind  can  deny  that 
here  in  this  great  land  of  equal  rights,  more  than  in  any  other 
country  in  the  world,  individual  man  has  a  fairer,  wider  and 
better  field  to  develop  the  powers  God  has  given  him,  and 
secure  the  highest  rewards  of  industry  and  talent.  I  know 
very  well  that  our  government  has  not  escaped  from  the 
charge  of  degeneracy.  It  is  often  said,  and  that,  too,  by 
men  of  character  and  reflection,  that  it  is  not  what  it  was, 
and  that  we  are  constantly  moving  in  a  direction  opposite  to 
the  line  of  true  Democratic  progress.  Chances,  I  admit, 
have  taken  place,  but  they  were  natural  and  regular.  Great 
wealth,  a  vast  mixed  population,  wonderful  inventions,  which 
have  almost  annihilated  time  and  space,  have  within  a  hun- 
dred years  brought  us  innovations ;  and  who  regrets  it  ? 
Compare  the  condition  of  the  country  now  with  what  it  was 
on  the  18th  of  January,  1782,  the  day  that  Daniel  Webster 
first  saw  the  light  of  heaven  in  his  frontier  home,  and  note 
the  contrast.  And  still  every  change  has  been  an  improve- 
ment —  every  advanced  step  has  placed  us  further  on  in  the 
line  of  true  progress,  until  to-day  this  great  government  of 
the  people,  for  the  people,  is  the  pride  and  admiration  of  the 
wTorld.  Do  you  think  that  all  this  has  been  the  result  of 
mere  accident?  Does  climate,  soil,  or  the  physical  state  of 
man  on  this  continent,  account  for  all  that  has  been  accom- 
plished? Far  from  it.  Other  lands  have  soils  as  rich  as 
ours.  Climates,  too,  as  salubrious  as  any  a  Western  sun 
ever  shone  upon  can  be  found  in  the  midst  of  the  rankest 
despotisms  of  the  East. 

I  feel  that  I  have  Avandered  too  far  away  from  my  subject. 
We  are  here  to-night  to  honor  the  memory  of  a  man  who  did 
more  in  his   day  and  generation  to  make  this  country  all  I 


182  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

have  tried  to  describe  it  than  any  other  cause.  Many  may 
think  this  is  the  language  of  exaggeration.  It  is  not.  No 
warrior,  military  or  naval,  no  public  character  of  any  party 
or  any  day,  ever  accomplished  half  that  Webster  did  to  make 
this  great  country  all  that  we  now  find  it,  or  who  has  so  in- 
effaceably  impressed  his  mind,  character  and  principles  upon 
the  sources  of  our  national  life.  You  have  had  great  armies 
and  generals,  great  legislators  and  judges,  but  what  did  they 
fight  for,  legislate  for,  or  judge  for?  Behind  and  beyond 
them  all  were  principles  that  had  to  be  established  and  im- 
pressed upon  the  public  heart  before  either  the  warrior,  the 
legislator  or  the  judge  could  bring  into  operation  the  skill 
and  training  of  his  profession.  Webster  furnished  material, 
without  which  you  would  have  had  neither  warriors,  legisla- 
tors nor  judges.  After  all,  most  of  the  conspicuous  charac- 
ters in  life  are  only  imitators  and  followers.  It  is  the  pride 
and  boast  of  his  fame  that  he  occupies  a  like  relation  to  those 
who  have  succeeded  him  that  the  God  of  Nations  does  to 
those  who  apply  their  petty  contrivances  to  the  mysterious 
products  which  His  wisdom  has  given  for  the  happiness  and 
comfort  of  the  human  race.  Our  Constitution  was  an  ex- 
periment. Brought  into  life  amid  severe  conflicts  of  opinion 
respecting  the  best  system  of  government  for  this  new  people, 
it  is  far  from  perfect.  But  those  who  are  most  ready  to 
condemn  its  imperfections  can  have  little  idea  of  the  difficul- 
ties that  were  to  be  overcome  in  order  to  establish  it.  Local 
jealousies,  inspired  by  local  interests ;  extreme  love  of  lib- 
erty, the  result  of  long  years  of  oppression  ;  attachments  for 
State  or  colonial  governments,  and  dread  of  all  central 
authority,  — these  and  other  opinions  less  numerous  and  popu- 
lar, of  an  opposite  character,  gave  us  a  Constitution  made 
up  of  concession  and  compromise,  and  which  contained  the 
seminal  principles  of  sectional  and  party  strife.  The  advo- 
cates of  power  professed  to  find  in  it  the  source  of  unlimited, 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  183 

almost  imperial,  authority.  The  friend  of  liberty  would  see 
nothing  in  it  but  the  delegation  of  a  few  simple  powers, 
suited  to  the  wants  of  a  poor  and  sparsely  populated  coun- 
try. Who  was  to  settle  and  adjust  the  contentions  sure  to 
arise  from  such  an  organic  law  ?  Who  was  to  give  life  and 
energy  to  this  new  system  ;  reconcile  the  love  of  liberty  with 
t-he  love  of  power;  teach  the  people  to  be  confiding  and 
trustful  in  their  own  institutions  ;  point  out  the  difference  in 
consequences  and  dangers  between  those  repositories  of  pub- 
lic power  which  emanate  from,  and  hold  their  authority  by, 
the  consent  of  the  people,  and  those  self-constituted  rulers 
who  justify  their  tyranny  by  pretensions  of  authority  coming 
from  on  high?  This  was  a  work  that  had  to  be  done  by 
some  one  if  this  frame  of  government  wras  to  last.  And  it 
seemed  to  be  the  pleasure  of  Divine  Providence,  in  order  to 
render  the  work  the  more  enduring  and  acceptable,  to  raise 
up  a  man  from  among  the  lowly  and  humble  and  give  him 
godlike  powers  to  perform  this  more  than  task.  Gentle- 
men, the  limits  which  must  bound  any  effort  like  this,  pre- 
vent me  from  doing  more  than  glancing  at  the  labors  of 
Daniel  Webster  for  the  good  and  glory  of  his  country. 
Springing  as  he  did  from  the  loins  of  the  people,  without 
wealth,  rank  or  station,  and  living  at  a  time  when  these 
tilings  were  more  potent  than  they  ever  were,  he  had  to 
struggle  against  poverty  and  obscurity  for  long  years  before 
the  greatness  of  his  intellect  obtained  for  him  his  proper  sta- 
tion in  the  great  battlefield  of  life.  Naturally  of  a  delicate 
constitution,  the  weakness  of  his  body  led  to  the  exertions 
and  sacrifices  of  his  noble  father  to  develop  and  cultivate  his 
mind.  Unable  to  perform  the  hard  labor  which  was  the  lot 
of  his  family,  every  expedient  of  economy,  every  resource  of 
frontier  frugality,  was  resorted  to  in  order  to  save  him  from 
the  hard  decree  of  fate  which  seemed  to  mark  him  for  the 
condition  of  a  son  of  sweat  and  toil.     Upon  him  the  pride  of 


184  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL, 

the  family  soon  became  concentrated,  and  it  was  reserved  for 
an  obscure,  laborious,  but  honest  New  England  farmer,  to 
raise  up  in  an  humble  home,  far  away  from  the  centres  of 
wealth,  refinement  and  luxury,  the  grandest  intellect  that 
ever  adorned  a  senate  or  distinguished  a  nation.  The  pro- 
fession of  laAv  —  ever  the  gateway  to  fame  under  a  govern- 
ment like  this  —  was  the  calling  he  selected.  And  I  say 
here  to-night  that  if  all  the  shortcomings  of  that  profession 
and  its  followers  from  the  time  of  Coke  to  the  present  day 
were  massed  together,  they  would  be  tenfold  overbalanced 
by  the  benefit  it  has  conferred  upon  mankind  and  the  world 
in  bringing  out  the  powers  and  developing  the  usefulness 
of  Daniel  Webster.  He  declared  at  a  Bar  dinner  in  Charles- 
town  that  all  he  was  he  owed  to  the  legal  profession,  and  his 
labors  in  the  Supreme  Court  will  forever  remain  the  proudest 
monuments  of  his  genius  and  learning.  Well  may  Massa- 
chusetts and  well  may  Boston  take  pride  in  honoring  this 
distinguished  man.  Here  it  was  that  he  received  encouraii'e- 
ment  and  support  when  his  great  powers  began  to  open  upon 
the  country.  From  here,  under  the  pressing  solicitations  of 
a  confiding  and  intelligent  constituency,  he  went  forth  to  the 
councils  of  the  nation  to  perform  the  great  work  for  which 
God  had  designed  him.  Abandoning  his  great  practice  and 
his  sure  prospects  of  an  ample  fortune,  at  the  call  of  Boston 
he  dedicated  himself  to  the  service  and  glory  of  his  country. 
And  if  there  is  a  spot  on  earth  that  can,  with  more  propriety 
than  another,  do  honor  to  his  memory  and  his  fame,  it  is  the 
one  on  which  we  stand  to-night,  which  he  loved  and  served 
so  well.  Methinks  his  genius  hovers  over  us  here  to-night. 
And  I  doubt  not,  that  if  it  were  permitted  his  great  spirit  to 
speak  to  us  from  his  habitation  in  the  skies,  he  would  yet 
inculcate  and  teach  us  the  same  great  lessons  of  love,  pat- 
riotism and  duty  which  he  delighted  to  impress  upon  his 
countrymen  during  his  sojourn  on  earth.    Never  since  Wash- 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  185 

ington  lived  was  there  a  public  man  in  this  country  more 
universally  loved  and  respected  than  Mr.  Webster.  His 
great  head  and  heart  thought  and  felt  for  the  entire  country 
and  all  of  its  people.  No  narrow  idea  of  State  or  sectional 
policy,  no  local  attachments  or  party  ties,  no  promptings  of 
individual  ambition,  were  ever  permitted  to  stand  between 
him  and  the  most  unbounded  love  and  devotion  for  every 
part  of  this  great  Republic.  To  the  Union  of  these  States 
he  was  wedded  by  a  principle  of  uncompromising  loyalty ; 
to  the  Constitution  which  created  it  he  gave  the  full  support 
of  his  unrivalled  talents  and  the  unstinted  allegiance  of  his 
liberty-loving  heart.  While  others  discovered  blemishes 
upon  it  and  condemned  them,  he  nobly  declared  that  with  all 
its  defects  it  was  too  full  of  blessings  for  this  people  to  be 
disobeyed.  While  possessing  talents  and  genius  that  would 
have  done  honor  to  the  Presidential  office,  and  beyond  any 
other  man  justly  entitled  to  it,  he  never,  under  the  tempta- 
tion of  power,  swerved  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  principles 
which  controlled  his  public  conduct  in  order  to  swell  his 
popularity  or  increase  his  fame. 

During  the  entire  period  of  his  public  life  he  stood  as  a 
grand  sentinel  on  the  ramparts  of  the  Republic  and  watched 
every  movement,  great  or  small,  which  threatened  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  Union.  And  if  that  Union  has  survived  the 
shocks  of  battle,  and  is  to-day  the  source  of  hope  and  free- 
dom and  life  to  millions  of  our  race,  to  him  whose  memory 
we  honor  to-night,  more  than  to  your  generals  or  your  ad- 
mirals, are  you  indebted  for  the  freedom  and  blessings  it 
affords.  His  intense  love  for  the  Union  and  the  Constitution 
was  not  the  result  of  party  attachment  or  sectional  interest. 
It  was  based  upon  a  principle  higher  and  nobler  than  that. 
It  sprang  from  a  deep,  inborn,  disinterested,  unchangeable 
devotion  to  free  institutions,  and  every  attribute  of  genuine 
Republican  liberty,  for  which  there  could  be  no  hope  here  or 


186  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

elsewhere  without  the  Union  and  the  Constitution.     In  the 
warmth  of  debate  it  was  said  he  was  a  lover  of  power.     No 
man  ever  loved  it  less,  or  freedom  more.     Nothing  is   so 
conspicuous  in  his  speeches  and  writings  as  the  fervor  and 
clearness  with  which  he  expressed  his  attachment  for  the 
great  principles  of  liberty  which  inspired  every  movement 
looking  to  the  liberation  and  freedom  of  mankind.     Who 
among  the  statesmen  of  this  country  understood  or  appre- 
ciated the   great   popular   movements   in   Europe  like  Mr. 
Webster?     And  who  was  more   outspoken  than  he  in  sup- 
port of  every  measure  and  principle  which  tended  to  lighten 
the  shackles  and   increase  the   privileges  of  the  oppressed 
people  there  ?     The  principles  of  the  English  revolution  of 
1688  he  never  tired  of  applauding.     The  orderly  and  con- 
servative manner  in  which  that  great  movement  was  brought 
about  and  consummated,  gave  him  confidence  in  the  people  ; 
and  while  he  was  at  all  times  the  most  advanced  advocate  of 
popular  rights,  he  thought  that  they  suffered  at  times  from 
those  violent  and  sudden  shocks  to  society  which  came  from 
ill-timed  and  bloody  revolutions.     His  great  argument  in  the 
Rhode  Island  case  shows  how  averse  he  was  to  all  attempts 
at  innovation  which  were  not  in  accordance  with  regular  Re- 
publican  methods.     If  he  loved  liberty,  it  was  not  the  wild, 
unregulated  license  of  the  mob,  but  it  was  the  well-tempered 
and  self-controlling  freedom  of  the  Constitution,  which  gives 
to  man  every  rational  right  and  enjoyment  essential  to  his 
happiness  and  Avelfare,  while  it  respects  and  enjoins  acquies- 
cence in  the  settled  rules  of  property  and  equality  of  privil- 
eges among  all  classes  of  citizens.     Gentlemen,  I  feel  that  I 
am   trespassing   upon  your   indulgence   to-night.     But   the 
magnitude  of  the  theme,  the  greatness  and  glory  of  the  man 
we  honor,,  constitutes  my  only  apology.     Coming  as  I  do 
from  the  far  South,  and  speaking  in  the  centre  of  the  intelli- 
gence and  greatness  of  New  England,  I  feel  that  the  ground 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  187 

on  which  I  tread  this  night  is  as  much  a  part  of  my  country 
as  that  in  which  my  own  home  is  erected.1  I  feel  that  here 
in  Boston,  speaking  to  the  memory  of  the  great  Webster, 
that  the  spot  on  which  we  stand  —  that  every  foot  of  soil 
over  which  floats  the  noble  ensign  of  the  Republic —  has 
been  consecrated  by  his  genius  to  the  full  freedom  and  equal 
enjoyment  of  every  American  citizen.  Your  kindness  and 
hospitality  have  done  much  to  make  me  feel  that  I  am  not  a 
stranger  among  you,  and  to  relieve  me  from  the  embarrass- 
ment which  one  always  finds  when  he  addresses  those  who 
live  at  great  distances  from  him.  But  the  great  man  who 
infused  into  the  public  heart  of  this  great  Republic  the 
undying  principle  of  nationality  —  who  during  his  whole  life 
taught  his  countrymen  nothing  but  lessons  of  love  and  devo- 
tion for  their  whole  country,  who  could  say  that  the  fame  of 
the  Rutledges,  the  Pinckneys,  the  Marions  and  Sumters  were 
the  same  to  him  as  the  fame  of  Adams.  Warren  and  Ames 
have  done  even  more  than  you  have  to  make  mo  feel  that  I 
can  speak  to  you  with  freedom  as  common  brethren,  bound 
by  every  tie  and  interest  to  the  greatness  and  glory  of  a  com- 
mon country.  Short  as  has  been  the  period  of  our  national 
existence,  it  has  been  prolific  of  great  events  and  great  men. 
We  have  had  a  Hamilton,  wise  beyond  his  years,  with  a 
mind  stored  with  the  choicest  learning  and  knowledge.  He 
explored  all  the  learning  of  the  classics,  surveyed  every  po- 
litical structure,  ancient  and  modern,  and  laid  upon  the  altar 
of  his  country,  to  guide  and  instruct  us,  the  most  profound 
contributions  of  philosophic  thought  that  were  ever  presented 
to  a  people.  We  have  had  a  Marshall,  whose  capacious 
judicial  intellect  was  equal  to  Mansfield's,  who  in  his  calm 
and  patient  investigations  of  the  judgment  seat  could  by  the 
glance  of  his  great  mind  dissolve  and  disentangle  the  most 
complicated  controversies,  and  separate,  with  the  precision 
of  a  mathematician,  the  higher  outlines  of  truth  and  justice 


188  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

from  the  dark  shadows  of  falsehood  and  error.  We  have 
had  a  Jefferson  whose  inspirations  of  liberty  were  drawn 
from  the  purest  sources  of  human  rights,  whose  great  heart 
was  always  in  sympathy  with  the  wants  and  feelings  of  the 
people,  and  whose  political  philosophy  consisted  in  drawing 
every  support  for  government  from  the  virtue  and  intelli- 
gence of  those  for  whom  it  was  created.  We  have  had  a 
Clay,  ardent,  eloquent  and  practical.  He  could  invest  the 
dullest  subject  with  the  animation  and  cheerfulness,  attrac- 
tions of  his  own  bright  genius.  He  lived  in  the  hearts  of 
his  devoted  followers,  but  there  was  such  a  vast  amount  of 
Promethean  lire  in  his  burning  words,  that  it  was  impossible 
for  them  to  retain  their  interest  with  which  he  inspired  them 
after  the  heat  and  magnetism  of  his  voice  had  subsided. 
And  we  had  a  Calhoun,  the  master  of  severe  logic,  pure  and 
inflexible.  His  austerity  resembled  that  of  Pitt,  of  whom 
Grattan  has  said  that  even  Majesty  itself  felt  abashed  and 
embarrassed  by  the  presence  of  his  towering  superiority. 
Patriotic  and  devoted  to  his  own  maxims  of  government,  he 
was  the  only  real  antagonist  Mr.  Webster  ever  met.  The 
time  at  last  came  when  the  fate  of  the  Constitution  was  to  be 
put  to  the  test  of  the  highest  argument  under  the  searching 
logic  of  these  great  masters  of  reason.  The  arena  of  conflict 
was  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

All  the  doubts  and  uncertainties  created  by  nearly  half  a 
century  of  controversy  respecting  the  true  character  of  the 
government  were  to  be  cleared  away  by  this  decisive  debate. 
One  of  the  States  of  the  Union  had  made  an  issue  with  the 
general  government  which  involved  every  principle  which 
secured  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  The  fate  of  an  empire 
the  most  interesting  the  sun  ever  shone  upon  was  trembling 
in  the  balance.  The  immortal  Jackson,  anxious  but  intrepid, 
was  at  the  head  of  the  state.  His  native  State  was  in  arms 
against  the  authority  of  the  Union,  and  upon  him  devolved 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  189 

the  trying  duty  of  deciding  between  the  arguments  which 
were  to  settle  the  momentous  controversy.  The  advocates 
finished  their  work.  It  was  performed  in  a  manner  that 
would  have  reflected  honor  on  the  most  renowned  orators  of 
antiquity.  That  debate  settled  for  all  time  the  character  of 
our  government.  Had  Jackson  adopted  the  argument  of  Mr. 
Calhoun,  no  power  on  earth  could  have  prevented  the  disin- 
tegration of  the  Union.  But  he  decided  the  case  in  favor 
of  Mr.  Webster  and  his  country.  The  proclamation  of  the 
great  President  went  forth,  and  in-  every  line  is  compressed 
the  argument  of  the  i^reat  advocate  of  the  Union.  The  world 
never  furnished  such  a  spectacle  of  impartial  action.  And 
if  we  are  permitted  to  draw  inspiration  from  the  great  trans- 
actions of  that  day,  let  us  with  the  great  examples  before  us 
revive  the  confidence  and  patriotism  which  were  exhibited 
when  a  Northern  Senator  pleaded  successfully  the  cause  of 
the  Union  and  the  Constitution  before  a  Southern  President. 
Now  that  the  great  controversy  to  which  Mr.  Webster  de- 
voted his  life  has  been  settled  in  favor  of  his  argument,  both 
in  the  forms  of  reason  and  by  the  bloody  wager  of  battle, 
and  while  honoring  his  memory  for  the  great  services  he  ren- 
dered his  country,  let  us  banish,  as  he  did,  all  unworthy 
feeling  of  passion  and  prejudice  for  or  against  any  section  of 
our  great  country,  and  imitate  his  example  by  the  exhibition 
of  a  fraternal  spirit  and  our  devotion  to  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  MARSHALL  P.  WILDER. 
Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder  was  introduced  as  an  old  and 
valued  friend  of  Webster,  as  one  who  sympathized  fully  with 
him,  particularly  in  his  agricultural  pursuits.     He  said, — 


190  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Mr.  President,  — I  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  the  kind 
words  you  have  spoken  of  me,  and  you,  my  fellow-citizens, 
for  your  cordial  greetings,  and  I  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  am 
most  happy  to  be  here  on  this  most  interesting  occasion  — 
here  to  meet  so  many  old  friends,  with  some  of  whom  I  have 
stood  in  olden  times  shoulder  to  shoulder  as  Webster  Whigs, 
and  from  whose  principles  we  have  never  departed.  I  thank 
you,  Mr.  President,  for  your  remembrance  of  me  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Massachusetts  Webster  Association.  At  its 
celebration,  twenty-eight  years  ago,  in  this  city,  I  had  the 
honor  of  presiding  ;  but  of  its  presidents  and  thirty-one  vice- 
presidents  only  two  are  left  to  tell  the  story,  and  I  alone  to 
represent  it  on  this  occasion.  They  are  Messrs.  George 
Ticknor  Curtis  and  Homer  Foote,  both  of  whom  are  present. 

But  when  I  look  around  me  and  see  so  many  distinguished 
gentlemen,  I  feel  how  very  unimportant  what  I  have  to  say 
may  be.  After  your  scholarly,  appropriate  and  patriotic  ad- 
dress —  after  the  speech  of  his  Excellency,  Gov.  Long,  who 
always  brings  such  learning,  ability  and  eloquence  to  the 
discharge  of  his  duties  —after  the  eloquent  address  and  faith- 
ful tribute  of  the  great  national  orator  of  the  present  day, 
and  in  my  present  state  of  ill-health,  I  feel  how  feeble  my 
words  may  be.  But  unless  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of 
my  mouth,  it  shall  never  be  silent  when  the  name  of  Daniel 
Webster  is  spoken  in  my  presence.  Oh,  no  !  that  name 
warms  up  the  old  heart,  it  makes  the  pulse  beat  stronger  and 
the  blood  to  course  more  freely  in  my  veins. 

It  Avas  my  great  privilege  to  be  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Webster  both  in  public  and  private  life,  and  I  thank  the 
Giver  of  all  good  that  He  has  prolonged  my  life  to  the  pres- 
ent time,  and  has  given  me  strength  to  be  here  and  bear 
testimony  to  the  transcendent  character  and  acquisitions  of 
that  immortal  man.  In  the  combined  character  of  statesman, 
orator  and  jurist,  Mr.  AVebster  had  no  equal  in  this  or  any 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  191 

other  land.  As  the  great  champion  of  the  American  Union, 
and  the  expounder  and  defender  of  the  Constitution,  he  was 
the  Magnus  Apollo  of  our  age  !  New  England  has  had  no 
such  other  son  !  America  has  had  no  more  illustrious  man  ! 
and  his  name  and  fame  shall  continue  to  illumine  the  pages 
of  history  with  brighter  and  brighter  effulgence  while  patri- 
otism, loyalty  and  gratitude  shall  have  a  place  in  the  heart 
of  mankind.  Oh,  how  dear  to  him  was  the  union  of  our 
States  !  and  could  he  speak  to  us  again,  with  what  majestic 
voice  and  electric  power  would  he  enforce  on  us  the  duty  of 
preserving  that  Union  for  which  he  sacrificed  his  life  !  Oh, 
yes,  I  hear  those  memorable  words  once  more.  They  come  to 
me  now  in  trumpet  tones  from  that  upper  sky,  "  The  Union  ! 
the  Union  !  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and 
inseparable  ! " 

Mr.  Webster  was  a  great  respecter  of  the  laws  of  nations, 
of  universal  justice  and  personal  rights,  a  hater  of  despotic 
power.  Never  shall  I  forget  those  tremendous  anathemas 
which  he  pronounced  on  the  Emperor  of  Eussia  should  he 
violate  the  laAv  of  nations  and  harm  the  head  of  the  noble 
Kossuth. 

"If,"  said  he,  "the  blood  of  Kossuth  be  taken,  what  will 
it  appease  ?  What  will  it  pacify  ?  It  will  mingle  with  the 
earth,  it  will  mix  with  the  waters  of  the  ocean,  the  whole 
civilized  world  will  snuff  it  in  the  air,  and  it  will  return  with 
awful  retribution  on  the  violators  of  national  laws  and  uni- 
versal justice.  There  is  something  on  earth  greater  than 
arbitrary  or  despotic  power.  The  lightning  has  its  power, 
the  whirlwind  has  its  power,  and  the  earthquake  has  its 
power ;  but  there  is  something  among  men  more  capable  of 
shaking  despots'  thrones  than  lightning,  whirlwind  or  earth- 
quake, —  that  is,  the  excited  and  aroused  indignation  of  the 
civilized  world." 

But  to  know  Mr.  Webster  best,  was  to  know  him  in  pri- 


192  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

vate  life,  to  know  him  at  his  own  sweet  home  at  Marshfield, 
whither  he  had  retired  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  rural  life, 
where  -his  boundless  intellect  could  revel  in  the  magnificence 
of  Nature,  and  learn  from  her  some  of  the  secrets  of  her 
wonder-working  power.  Mr.  Webster  was  from  youth  fond 
of  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  through  his  whole  life  was 
the  constant  patron  and  friend  of  agriculture,  and  did  much 
to  promote  it  by  his  presence  on  public  occasions.  He  was 
present  at  the  Norfolk  Agricultural  Society  where  Mr.  Win- 
throp  will  remember  he  made  his  famous  turnip  speech,  in 
which  he  said,  "  Strike  out  the  cultivation  of  the  turnip  crop 
in  England,  and  she  could  not  pay  the  interest  on  her 
national  debt." 

Some  present  will  remember  his  memorable  address  at  the 
formation  of  the  United  States  Agricultural  Society  at  Wash- 
ington—  his  eloquent  words  to  the  "Farmer  of  Arlington," 
George  Washington  Park  Custis,  who  sat  on  the  platform 
with  him.  Well  do  I  remember  his  speech  to  us  when  we 
paid  our  respects  to  him  at  his  own  house.  Said  Mr. 
Webster,  "Brother  Farmers, — You  do  me  no  more  than 
justice  when  you  call  me  the  Farmer  of  Marshfield.  My 
father  was  a  farmer,  and  I  am  a  farmer.  When  a  boy  on 
the  hills  of  New  Hampshire,  no  cock  crew  so  early  that  I 
did  not  hear  him.  You  are  engaged  in  a  noble  enterprise. 
The  prosperity  and  glory  of  the  Union  are  based  on  the 
achievements  of  agricultural  pursuits.  I  am  most  ardently 
attached  to  agricultural  pursuits.  And,  gentlemen,  I  will 
say  to  you  that  when  I  took  my  second  graduation  at  Dart- 
mouth College  I  delivered  an  address  on  the  importance  of 
forming  agricultural  societies  ;  and  although  I  have  not  seen 
that  production  since  that  day,  you  may  find  it  by  examin- 
ing anions  the  archives  of  Marshfield.  I  came  to  Marshfield 
as  a  farmer,  and  here  I  talk  neither  politics  nor  law.  I  love 
its  quiet  shades,  and  here  I  love  to  commune  with  you  upon 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL  193 

the  ennobling  pursuits  in  which  you  are  all  engaged.  I  shall 
remember  you  and  this  occasion ;  and  should  we  not  meet 
again  in  time,  I  trust  we  shall  meet  in  a  more  genial  clime, 
and  under  a  kindlier  sun.  Brother  farmers,  I  bid  you  good- 
morning." 

This  was  the  last  time  we  ever  met,  but  his  friendly  grasp 
still  lingers  in  the  palm  of  my  hand. 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  must  not  trespass  further  on  your 
lime,  and  I  will  bring  these  remarks  to  a  close.  Well  do  I 
remember  that  glorious  yet  mournful  autumnal  day  when 
the  remains  of  that  immortal  Webster  were  consigned  to  the 
bosom  of  mother  earth — a  day  when  Nature  had  enrobed  her 
forests  and  fields  with  crimson  and  gold,  as  if  to  do  honor  to 
his  memory.  Never  shall  I  forget  that  august  form  as  he 
lay  in  the  open  casket  under  his  own  favorite  tree  —  the  vast 
concourse  of  weeping  friends,  and  the  grand  funeral  proces- 
sion that  wended  its  way  over  the  fields  which  he  had  so  often 
trod,  to  the  consecrated  spot  which  he  had  prepared  for  his 
last  resting-place  on  earth,  where  his  noble  spirit  might  look 
out  over  this  broad  and  beautiful  landscape,  and  still  grander 
scopes  of  old  ocean's  waves,  over  which  his  eyes  had  so  often 
delighted  to  roam,  and  where,  in  his  own  words,  "the  earli- 
est light  of  the  morning  might  gild  it,  and  the  parting  day 
linger  and  play  on  its  summit." 


ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR  CURTIS. 

In  what  I  shall  say  here  to-night  of  Mr.  Webster  I  mean 
to  speak  within  all  the  bounds  of  moderation  ;  but  I  must 
express  my  serious  convictions  of  what  will  be  the  judgment 
of  posterity.  The  longer  I  live  and  the  more  I  study  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  more  I  am  impressed 


194  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

with  his  claim  to  be  regarded  as  its  defender,  and  as  the 
greatest  of  its  expositors.  It  was  not  merely  that  he  had  a 
chief  and  most  important  influence  in  settling  many  of  the 
specific  questions  of  interpretation  that  arose  during  his  day. 
It  was  in  his  relation  to  the  paramount  question  of  the  nature 
of  the  Union  as  established  by  the  Constitution,  that  his 
power  was  most  signally  exercised,  and  his  most  enduring 
laurels  were  won.  In  this  respect  it  may,  I  think,  be  truly 
said  of  him,  that  there  has  been  no  statesman  of  our  age, 
perhaps  there  has  been  no  one  of  all  the  ages  of  modern 
civilization,  whose  noble  intellect  has  more  impressed  itself 
upon  the  destinies  of  a  great  country,  than  has  the  intellect 
of  Daniel  Webster.  There  have  been  men  whose  will,  whose 
ambition,  whose  selfish  interests  have  enormously  affected 
the  fortunes  of  millions,  for  good  or  for  evil.  But  where 
had  there  been  a  man  whose  intellect,  apart  from  all  passion, 
has  determined  the  character  of  a  great  government  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  furnish  the  basis,  the  justifiable,  legal  and 
moral  basis,  of  a  civil  war  of  stupendous  proportions,  waged 
for  the  assertion  of  lawful  authority?  This  is  the  glory,  the 
untarnished,  the  unmatched  glory  of  Daniel  Webster,  which 
will  carry  his  name  and  fame  further  down  the  course  of  the 
centuries  than  that  of  any  other  American  statesman  of  our 
time.  Let  me  occupy  some  few  moments  in  a  demonstration 
of  this  truth  ;  for  that  it  is  a  truth  admitting  of  demonstration 
I  hold  to  be  certain. 

When  the  doctrine  of  what  was  called  secession  began  to 
be  put  into  practical  assertion  and  operation  by  the  secession 
of  South  Carolina,  immediately  after  the  election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  the  Presidency,  it  so  happened  that  the  only  de- 
partment of  the  government  which  undertook  officially  to 
define  the  principle  on  which  that  doctrine  could  be  encoun- 
tered was  the  Executive.  From  the  1st  of  November,  1860, 
to  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  the  Congress  did  nothing  what- 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  195 

ever  to  furnish  to  the  country  a  basis  of  action  or  a  course 
of  policy.  I  shall  introduce  nothing  here  to-night  in  the 
slightest  degree  criminating  any  individual  or  any  party  ;  but 
it  is  within  the  proprieties  of  this  occasion  to  refer  to  well- 
known  historical  facts*  It  so  happened,  as  I  have  intimated, 
that  the  doctrines  of  the  Executive  in  encountering  the  de- 
mand of  South  Carolina  to  be  recognized  as  an  independent 
and  foreign  State  by  reason  of  the  ordinance  of  secession, 
which  it  was  certain  would  be  adopted,  made  it  necessary  for 
President  Buchanan  in  his  annual  message  of  December  3, 
I860,  to  give  to  the  country  his  conception  of  the  rightful 
power  of  the  federal  government  in  meeting  that  emergency. 
What  was  his  doctrine  ?  It  was  that  to  coerce  a  State  to 
remain  in  the  Union,  to  make  war  upon  a  State,  to  preserve 
her  in  her  political  capacity  as  a  State  from  doing  an  uncon- 
stitutional act,  was  not  within  the  constitutional  province  of 
the  federal  power ;  but  that  to  coerce  and  to  compel  the  in- 
dividual inhabitants  of  any  State  to  submit  to  and  obey  the 
laws  of  the  United  States,  and  to  do  it  by  the  use  of  all  the 
force  necessary  to  remove  all  obstructions  to  the  exercise  of 
the  conceded  powers  of  the  federal  Constitution,  was  an 
authority  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  could 
exert  upon  the  strictest  principles  of  constitutional  interpre- 
tation. Now  where  did  President  Buchanan  get  this  doc- 
trine? He  did  not  invent  it.  He  never  claimed  to  have 
invented  it.  It  was  squarely  and  strictly  the  doctrine  ex- 
pounded by  Daniel  Webster  in  1830  in  his  reply  to  Hayne, 
and  in  1833  in  his  encounters  with  Mr.  Calhoun.  It  was 
the  doctrine  acted  upon  by  Jackson.  It  was  the  doctrine 
that  was  accepted  at  that  time  by  all  thinking  men  out  of 
South  Carolina  —  North,  South,  East  and  West.  The  growth 
of  the  claim  of  secession  as  a  constitutional  right  wras  the 
growth  of  a  subsequent  period.  It  was,  indeed,  a  logical 
deduction  from  Mr.  Calhoun's  premises,  if  you  admitted  the 


196  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

soundness  of  these  premises.  But  the  service  which  Web- 
ster rendered  to  his  age,  and  to  all  future  ages,  consisted  in 
the  unanswerable  demonstration  which  he  made,  that  the 
premises  were  unsound,  and  in  the  exposition  of  the  consti- 
tutional truth,  that  a  voluntary  cession  of  sovereign  powers 
by  a  free  people  to  a  government  proper,  is  an  irrevocable 
cession,  and  not  a  mere  international  compact ;  that  it  can  be 
broken  up  only  by  a  revolution  founded  on  some  .past  actual 
expression,  and  that  the  alleged  constitutional  right  of  seces- 
sion is  not  an  exercise  of  the  rights  of  revolution. 

Now  follow  down  the  political  history  of  the  civil  war,  and 
you  will  find  that  two  things  are  undeniably  true.  The  first 
is  that  the  Webster  doctrine  of  the  nature  of  the  Union  was 
the  ground  on  which  men  of  all  parties  could  unite  in  sup- 
porting the  government  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  and 
that  nothing  else  could  have  united  them.  Neither  Demo- 
crats  nor  any  considerable  number  of  Republicans  could  ever 
have  accepted,  or  ever  did  accept,  the  theory  that  war  was  to 
be  made  upon  the  Southern  States  to  their  subjugation  as 
States  as  if  they  had  been  foreign  countries,  or  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  their  autonomy  as  States  of  the  Union.  But  the 
destruction  of  the  Confederate  government  and  all  its  mili- 
tary power  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  the  just  supremacy 
of  the  Constitution  over  the  people  of  the  whole  Union  was 
a  platform  on  which  all  Northern  men  could  stand,  the  prin- 
ciple on  which  they  could  lend  their  aid  and  lay  down  their 
lives. 

Go  on  one  stage  further,  and  contemplate  the  close  of  the 
war.  What  was  it  that  prevented  us  of  the  North,  the 
stronger  section,  from  being  left  with  conquered  provinces 
and  subjugated  peoples  on  our  hands,  without  any  rights 
which  a  conqueror  in  war  is  bound  to  respect?  What  was 
it  but  the  Webster  doctrine  of  the  nature  of  the  Union,  the 
indestructible  nature  of  a  State  as  known  to  the  American 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  197 

system?     It  is  true  here,  my  friends,  that  the  last  and  most 
impressive  lesson  of  Webster's  life  is  to  be  discerned.     In 
his  doctrine,   his  grand  interpretation  of  the  nature  of  the 
Union — the  indestructible    powers,  the    supremacy  of  the 
federal  Constitution  in  respect  to  all  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment committed  to  it  —  goes  along  with  the  equally  inde- 
structible supremacy  of  the  States  in  all  matters  reserved  to 
them  by  the  Constitution   itself.     And  therefore   do    I  say 
that  the  share  of  those  who  were  defeated  in  the  field,  in  his 
glory  and  renown,  is  as  great  as  our  own.     The  wild  theories 
of  State  suicide,  of  State  subjugation,  of  the  subjugation  of 
peoples,  which  sprang  up  as  the  war  was  closing,  and  for  a 
short  time  disturbed  us  all  with  fearful  apprehensions,  per- 
ished out  of  the  popular  belief.     What  lived  and  still  lives 
was  the  imperishable  doctrine  of  Webster,  which  was,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  the  real  guide  of  all  public  meas- 
ures for  the  restoration  of  the  Southern  States  to  their  normal 
relations  with  the  Union.     It  remains  for  the  influences  of 
commerce  to  accomplish  all  that  can  be  accomplished  for  the 
spread  of  civilization  and  the  amelioration  of  all  conditions  of 
men.     I  wish,  indeed,  that  the  terms  North  and  South  could 
be  obliterated  from  our  common  speech,  in  that  sense  which 
has  so  long  marked  and  continues  to  mark  a  contrast,  a  di- 
versity, between  Northern  and  Southern  civilization.     It  is 
to  commerce,  yes,  to  trade  and  industry,  in  their  material 
forms,  and  in  the  beneficent  improvements  that  always  follow 
in  their  train,  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  final  removal  of  all 
that  now  remains  of  antagonism  between  the  North  and  the 
South.     And  therefore,  as  one  who  has  done  with  all  party 
politics  and  all  sectional  questions  of  the  past,  excepting  as 
matters  of  history,  I  now  couple  the  name  of  Daniel  Web- 
ster, as  the  great  expounder  of  the  nature  of  the  Union,  with 
the  hope  and  belief  that,  as  age  rolls  on  after  age,  the  recog- 
nition of  his  constitutional  doctrine  will  continue  to  operate, 


198  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

to  preserve  for  the  commercial  enterprise  of  every  succeeding 
generation  the  means  and  opportunities  by  which  it  is  now 
and  in  the  most  distant  future  to  make  us  a  united  and  a 
happy  people. 


HOX.  JAMES  W.  BRADBURY 
Of  Maine,  who  was  in  the  United  States  Senate  with  Web- 
ster, said,  — 

After  the  eloquent  addresses  to  which  you  have  listened, 
and  in  this  presence,  where  there  are  so  many  who  have 
long  known  Mr.  Webster,  it  becomes  me  to  confine  my- 
self to  very  brief  remarks.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  be 
associated  with  him  in  the  Senate  during  that  excited  and 
long-continued  effort  to  give  governments  to  the  Territories 
organized  from  Mexico.  The  excitement  was  intense.  Mr. 
Webster  appreciated  the  danger.  He  was  aware  that  many 
of  those  whose  friendship  he  highly  prized  did  not  see  the 
danger,  did  not  believe  its  existence.  At  that  time  the  rel- 
ative  strength  of  the  two  sections  of  the  Union  Avas  vastly 
different  from  what  it  was  ten  years  subsequent,  and  you 
know  that  ten  years  from  that  time  events  demonstrated  the 
danger  that  Mr.  Webster  foresaw.  Then  the  Northwestern 
States  were  connected  to  the  South  by  the  great  channel  of 
commerce,  the  Mississippi  river;  they  were  not  connected 
with  the  North  in  commercial  relations  by  the  great  system 
of  railroads  which  subsequently  existed  ;  and  the  position  of 
the  country  when  the  struggle  came  was  vastly  different  from 
that  which  it  presented  to  us  at  the  time  Mr.  Webster  gave 
his  warning.  He  foresaw  the  coming  danger  ;  he  was  willing 
to  risk  reputation,  the  loss  of  friendship  dearly  prized,  aad 
the  esteem  of  constituents  that  he  had  honored  and  whose 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  191) 

regard  he  prized  ;  and  he  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  com- 
promise of  Mr.  Clay  with  all  his  ardor  and  strength.  Thus 
he  showed  his  patriotic  devotion  to  the  Union ;  not  that  he 
loved  his  friends  less,  but  that  he  loved  the  Union  more. 
It  was  from  a  true  patriotic  impulse  that  he  gave  that  hearty 
support  to  the  compromise  introduced  by  Mr.  Clay.  He 
voluntarily  sacrificed  the  good  opinion  of  those  who  did  not 
realize  that  a  peril  existed.  I  think  that  his  7th  of  March 
speech  in  the  year  1850  was  one  of  the  most  patriotic  acts 
of  his  life.  I  do  not  wish  to  speak  at  length  of  him  ;  I  wish 
simply  to  bear  testimony  to  the  patriotism  of  Daniel  Webster. 


HON".  FRANKLIN  HAVEN, 
Who  was  presented  as  a  constant  friend  of  Webster,  said, — 

Webster  was  the  greatest  man  America  has  produced.  It 
was  my  fortune  to  enjoy  his  friendship,  and,  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, his  confidence  for  many  years.  We  all  know  what 
were  his  transcendent  intellectual  powers,  and  the  admira- 
tion which  they  called  forth  in  this  country  and  in  all  the 
world.  Webster's  heart  was  as  deep  as  his  intellect ;  it  was 
of  course  known  but  by  those  who  came  in  direct  contact 
with  him,  but  it  dominated  all  his  acts. 

Mr.  Haven  spoke  at  some  length  of  the  confidence  that 
Webster's  Marshfield  friends  reposed  in  him,  and  of  the  in- 
terest that  the  statesman  took  in  agricultural  and  rural  pur- 
suits, relating  in  this  connection  the  details  of  an  interesting 
visit  that  he  and  Mrs.  Haven  made  at  Webster  place  when  it 
was  the  hospitable  home  of  Mr.  AVebster  and  his  family. 


200  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

The  Chairman  next  called  upon  Gen.  Williamson  to  tes- 
tify to  the  estimation  of  the  deceased  statesman  held  by  the 
West. 

ADDEESS  OF  GEN.  WILLIAMSON. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Marshfield  Club  : 

I  owe  you  many  thanks  for  your  invitation  to  be  present 
on  this  commemorative  occasion  of  the  birth  of  one  of  the 
greatest  men,  intellectually,  and  one  of  the  purest  patriots, 
who  has  lived  in  any  time  or  country.  It  is  especially 
grateful  to  me  to  meet  so  many  who  have  the  honor  of  having 
been  personally  acquainted  with  Daniel  Webster,  and  having 
been  favored  with  his  friendship.  The  memory  of  having 
been  his  friend,  and,  perchance,  of  having  assisted  him  (for, 
godlike  as  he  was,  he  was  mortal,  and  as  such  needed  warm, 
generous  human  sympathy) ,  must  be  a  treasure  and  a  heri- 
tage highly  prized  by  you  all.  Even  a  glance  at  the  cold, 
inanimate  marble  or  the  lifeless  canvas  presentment  of  the 
great  Massachusetts  statesman  raises  high  hopes  and  noble 
resolves  in  the  minds  of  the  young  men  of  the  great  Republic 
who  behold  them.  Though  the  massive  brain  has  long  ago 
ceased  its  busy  work,  and  the  fond,  warm  heart,  that  seemed 
to  hold  communion  and  sympathy  not  only  with  his  fellow- 
men,  but  with  the  domestic  animals  on  his  farm,  has  long 
been  stilled  in  death,  the  great  thoughts  to  which  he  gave 
utterance  will  live  forever,  and  the  memory  of  his  kind  and 
simple  nature  will  be  transmitted  down  the  generations,  and 
live  in  tradition  for  a^es  to  come,  among  the  descendants  of 
those  who  knew  and  loved  him  as  many  of  you  have.  The 
happiness  of  seeing  him  was  denied  me,  as  my  home  was  in 
the  then  far  West,  beyond  the  Mississippi,  until  after  the 
close  of  Mr.  Webster's  life  ;  but  this  did  not  prevent  me 
from  worshipping  from  afar  the  great  New  Englander,  and 
weeping  bitter  tears  when  he  died,  ending  my  fond  hope  of 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  201 

some  day  meeting  him  faee  to  face.  To  what  extent  the  life 
and  teachings  of  Daniel  Webster  have  animated  and  in- 
spired the  world  to  great  thoughts  and  noble  actions  may 
never  —  can  never  —  be  known.  It  may  be  that  the  utterance 
of  the  immortal  words,  "Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  for- 
ever, one  and  inseparable  !  "  animated  the  minds  and  nerved 
the  hearts  of  those  who  took  arms  in  defence  of  liberty, 
union,  and  the  life  of  the  nation.  Who  knows,  save  God 
alone,  and  who  shall  say,  that  this  nation  does  not  owe  the 
preservation  of  the  Union  and  its  life  to  those  sublime  words  ? 
Webster,  though  dead,  was  as  powerful  as  an  army  in  fight- 
ing the  battles  of  his  country  which  he  loved  so  well.  His 
teachings  were  a  living  force ;  and,  like  Jove,  invisible  to 
mortals,  though  his  presence  was  felt,  led  the  loyal  hosts  on 
to  battle  and  to  victory.  On  this  one  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  Daniel  Webster,  the  nation  should  rise  and 
stand  uncovered  in  apprehension  that  the  spirit  of  the  great 
expounder  of  its  fundamental  law  is  again  visiting  its  earthly 
abode,  enforcing  his  life  teachings  among  the  people,  to  the 
end  that  their  government  and  constitutional  liberty  shall  be 
enforced  —  the  Magna  Charta  for  the  ages  to  come  —  to  all 
who  love  liberty.  In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  say  that  I  am 
surprised  at  my  own  temerity  in  attempting  on  such  an 
occasion  as  this  to  speak  to  a  select  Boston  audience  concern- 
ing a  man  of  whose  life  and  character  they  know  so  much, 
from  personal  contact  and  acquaintance,  and  I  so  little, 
gleaned  only  from  the  literature  of  the  times. 


HON.   GEORGE  LUNT. 

"  No  one  more  admired  and  respected  him  whose  natal  day 
we  now  commemorate  than  Hon.  George   Lunt,"  were  the 


202  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

words  with  which  the  President  introduced  the  next  speaker. 
First  paying  a  personal  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Web- 
ster, Mr.  Lunt  said  that  he  was  glad  of  the  opportunity  to 
correct  recent  misrepresentations  of  his  position  in  anti- 
slavery  times.  He  stated  that  he  accepted  the  chairmanship 
of  a  special  committee  of  the  Senate,  then  appointed  to  give 
a  hearing  on  the  question  of  abolition.  The  other  two  mem- 
bers were  unwilling  to  give  a  hearing,  but  the  speaker  was 
in  favor  of  hearing  all  interested.  It  accordingly  took  place, 
but  those  who  appeared  declared  themselves  to  be  citizens 
of  the  world  rather  than  of  Massachusetts,  and  as  such  de- 
manded a  recognition  of  their  claims.  The  committee  did 
not  consider  themselves  obliged  to  listen  to  every  one  on 
earth,  and  so  declined  to  hear  them.  After  a  few  days  the 
hearing  came  to  an  end  in  disorder.  A  petition  was  sent  to 
the  Legislature  complaining  of  the  wrongs  inflicted  by  the 
committee,  but  both  branches,  by  an  unusual  majority,  sus- 
tained the  members.  "But," continued  the  speaker,  "I  hold 
now,  as  I  did  then,  that  the  colored  man  cannot  be  made  the 
social  equal  of  the  white  man.  The  negro  does  not  deserve 
it,  and  it  must  not  be." 


HON.  CHARLES  LEVI  WOODBURY. 
Hon.  Charles  Levi  Woodbury  was  introduced  as  a  personal 
friend  of  Daniel  Webster.  He  had,  he  said,  received  many 
acts  of  kindness  from  the  great  statesman,  and  he  spoke  of 
the  love  and  affection  Mr.  Choate  bore  to  Mr,  Webster,  as 
one  of  the  rarest  and  most  beautiful  things  on  both  sides. 
"  My  thoughts,"  he  continued,  "  go  back  to  when,  in  the  pleni- 
tude of  his  reputation,  his  heart  went  fondly  back  to  New 
England.     It  is  for  that  that  we  of  New  Hampshire,  here  to- 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  203 

ni^ht,  honor  him  and  cling  to  him,  no  matter  what  our  politics 
may  be.  He  gave  both  his  sons  to  the  cause  of  the  country 
he  loved  so  well ;  and  what  Spartan  or  Roman  could  have 
done  more  ?  His  memory  will  live  so  long  as  the  love  of 
liberty  shall  live,  so  long  as  the  history  of  our  country  shall 
live." 


HON.  LEVEKETT  SALTONSTALL. 
The  next  speaker,  Hon.  Leverett  Saltonstall,  is  a  member 
of  the  club ;  and  on  being  introduced,  desired  to  speak  only 
of  his  personal  memories  of  Mr.  Webster.  He  remembered 
the  irreat  man  first  in  the  White  murder  case,  when  the 
speaker  was  but  five  years  old.  He  remembered  him  in 
Washington  and  at  his  father's  table.  He  was  also  present 
at  Webster's  great  speech  on  the  7th  of  March,  the  ablest  of 
his  life.  It  was  a  masterpiece  of  oratory,  and  the  most 
wonderful  example  of  oratory  in  his  life.  "I  thought  then, 
and  think  now,  that  Mr.  Webster  could  not  have  said  any- 
thing different  from  what  he  said  on  that  occasion.  All  who 
differed  with  him  then  will  agree  with  him  now.  It  was  a 
speech  for  the  Union.  His  greatness  is  before  us  now,  as  if 
he  addressed  an  assembly  of  gods  and  not  of  men,  and  he  the 
greatest  among  them.  He  was  true  to  his  country  and  true 
to  himself.  And  as  we  see  small  spirits  to-day  casting  asper- 
sions upon  him,  the  foremost  in  the  history  of  the  country, 
it  reminds  me  of  the  man  who,  in  picking  out  the  spots  on 
the  sun,  forgot  the  great  luminary  itself." 


OTHER    SPEAKERS. 
Hon.  Charles  P.  Thompson  was  called  on  to  respond  for 
the  Essex  Bar.     He  said  the  point  had  been  arrived  at  when 


204  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

to  speak  disrespectfully  of  Daniel  Webster  does  no  harm  to 
his  reputation,  while  it  does  immense  injury  to  him  who 
utters  the  aspersion.  He  offered  as  a  sentiment:  "The  life 
of  Daniel  Webster,  the  highest  encouragement  to  the  states- 
man ;  the  sternest  rebuke  to  the  politician." 

Mr.  John  E.  Russell,  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture, 
spoke  of  the  love  of  nature  held  by  him  whom  all  had  assem- 
bled to  honor.  He  regarded  Daniel  Webster  as  the  repre- 
sentative American  farmer. 

The  President  announced  the  receipt  of  letters  from  gentle- 
ilcmen  unable  to  be  present,  among  them  being  one  from 
Hon.  Alexander  H.  Bullock,  whose  sudden  death  all  mourned  ; 
Judge  Lord ;  Sir  Edward  Tilley,  Minister  of  Finance  of 
Canada ;  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stuart  of  Virginia,  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  when  Webster  was  at  the  head  of  the  Cabinet ; 
Hon.  John  Boyd,  Mayor  of  St.  John  ;  Hon.  Francis  Brinley  ; 
Hon.  S.  J.  Tilden  ;  E.  P.  Whipple,  Esq.  ;  Hon.  E.  R.  Hoar  ; 
William  H.  Durnan  of  Hanover,  N.H.  ;  Hon.  Julius  Rock- 
well ;  Hon.  Charles  H.  Thomas  and  Hon.  E.  J.  Phelps. 
After  a  few  words  from  Mr.  T.  C.  Amory  the  company  dis- 
persed. 


OBSERVANCE  AT  WASHINGTON. 

The  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birthday  of  Daniel 
Webster  was  celebrated  by  a  meeting  held  at  Willard's  hall 
for  the  purpose  of  initiating  a  movement  looking  to  the  erec- 
tion of  a  statue  to  that  great  man's  memory  in  the  district. 
There  was  a  good  attendance,  in  spite  of  the  very  disagree- 
able weather,  of  Senators,  Representatives  and  noted  public 
men.     A  large  oil  painting  of  Webster  was  displayed  on  the 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  205 

stage,  and  a  model  of  the  proposed  statue,  being  a  facsimile 
of  the  one  now  erected  in  New  York  city,  was  placed  on  a 
pedestal  in  the  auditorium.  Mr.  Blaine,  who  was  expected 
to  preside,  was  not  present,  owing  to  hoarseness  from  a 
newly  contracted  cold,  and  sent  his  regrets.  The  President 
also  sent  an  encouraging  letter.  Dr.  Loring  was  chosen  to 
preside,  and  opened  the  proceedings  by  stating  the  object  of 
the  meeting.  He  referred  in  glowing  terms  to  the  memory 
of  the  statesman  in  whose  honor  the  meeting  had  been  called, 
and  expressed  his  confidence  in  the  success  of  the  proposed 
movement.  Addresses  were  made  by  Senator  Blair  of  New 
Hampshire,  ex-Speaker  Randall,  Waldo  Hutchins  and  other 
prominent  gentlemen.  A  committee  of  seven  was  appointed 
by  the  chair  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements  for  receiv- 
ing subscriptions  for  the  object  in  view,  and  it  was  announced 
that  most  of  the  money  needed  had  been  promised  already. 

President  Arthur  and  ex-Secretary  Blaine,  who  had  been 
invited  to  attend  the  Webster  meeting  at  Willard's  hall ,  sent 
the  following  letters,  which  were  read  :  — 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  January  18,  1882. 
Stilson  Hutchins,  Esq. 

Dear  sir,  —  I  regret  that  other  duties  prevent  me  from 
accepting  your  kind  invitation  to  attend  the  meeting  at  Wil- 
lard's  hall  to-night,  to  celebrate  the  centennial  birthday  of 
Daniel  Webster  and  to  procure  a  statue  of  him  for  our  city ; 
but  I  shall  take  great  pleasure  in  otherwise  promoting  the 
purpose  of  your  meeting.  It  is  but  tardy  justice  that  now 
and  here,  where  Wrebster's  eternal  fame  was  won,  we  should 
speedily  erect  his  counterpart  in  enduring  bronze,  that  those 
who  follow  us  should  know  the  man  as  we  saw  him ;  and  it 
is  especially  appropriate  that  he  should  be  thus  honored  in 
this  city,  beautiful  beyond  all  others,  by  monuments  to  those 


206  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

who  devoted  their  lives  to  preserve  "Liberty  and  Union,  now 
and  forever,  one  and  inseparable." 

I  remain  very  faithfully  yours, 

Chester  A.  Arthur. 

Washington.  D.C.,  Jan.  18.  1882. 
Stilson  Hutchins,  Esq. 

Dear  sir,  —  Severe  hoarseness  incapacitates  me  from  pre- 
siding at  your  meeting  this  evening.  I  sincerely  regret  this, 
for  I  desire  to  speak  an  earnest  word  in  favor  of  commemo- 
rating the  fame  of  Mr.  Webster  by  a  suitable  monument  in 
Washington.  The  national  capital  contains  some  noble 
memorials,  reared  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  military 
heroes,  but  with  the  exception  of  Mi».  Lincoln's,  no  monu- 
ment has  been  erected  to  a  civilian.  It  is  well  to  begin  with 
Mr.  Webster.  His  fame  was  acquired  in  Washington,  and 
his  reputation  exceeds  that  of  any  man  who  has  served  in  the 
American  Congress.  I  have  no  doubt  the  response  to  the 
appeal  you  have  made  will  be  general  and  generous. 

Very  sincerely, 

James  G.  Blaine. 


THE  DAY  IN  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 
Franklin,  N.H.,  Jan.  18,  1882.— One  hundred  years 
ago  to-day,  in  a  part  of  Salisbury,  now  a  portion  of  Franklin, 
Daniel  Webster  was  born.  His  parents  attended  the  Con- 
gregational church  at  Salisbury,  on  the  south  road,  four 
miles  distant  from  his  birthplace,  and  two  miles  from  Frank- 
lin village.  At  that  church  this  evening  a  meeting  was  held 
to  commemorate  his  birth.  The  old  church  was  decorated 
with  flags  and  flowers,  and  a  portrait  of  Mr.  Webster  was 
suspended  behind  the  pulpit.     Other  pictures  of  the  states- 


*.. 


Birthplace  of  Daniel  Webster. 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  207 

man  were  placed  in  various  parts  of  the  house.  Deacon 
Thomas  D.  Little,  chairman  of  the  committee  of  arrange- 
ments, presided,  and  called  to  the  platform  several  of  the 
oldest  citizens,  all  of  them  natives  of  Salisbury,  and  all  pre- 
viously acquainted  with  Mr.  Webster.  Mr.  Little  read  from 
the  church  register,  written  in  the  hand  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Worcester,  long  time  a  pastor  of  their  church.  The  disputed 
point  as  to  Mr.  Webster's  church  connections  was  settled 
beyond  doubt  by  an  entry  under  date  of  September  13,  1807, 
in  which  is  plainly  written  that  on  that  date  Daniel  Webster 
united  with  the  Congregational  Church  in  Salisbury,  N.H. 
Under  date  of  May  29,  1808,  is  written,  "Married.  Daniel 
Webster,  Esq.,  to  Miss  Grace  Fletcher  of  Hopkinton,"  the 
marriage  occurring  at  the  house  of  Judge  Kelly,  whose  wife 
was  the  sister  of  Mr.  Webster's  bride.  This  house  is  now 
standing:  in  o-0od  condition  near  the  village  church.  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Barnum  read  several  letters  from  Mr.  Webster 
to  friends  in  Salisbury  ;  also  his  confession  of  faith  written 
to  Mr.  Worcester  in  1808.  Interesting  reminiscences  of 
Webster  were  contributed  by  several  old  residents. 

Concord,  N.H.,  Jan.  18,  1882.  —  The  one  hundredth  an- 
niversary of  the  birth  of  Webster  was  celebrated  here  to-day 
by  the  Webster  Club.  The  exercises  were  opened  in  the 
opera  house,  by  Edgar  H.  Woodman,  president  of  the  club, 
who  after  brief  remarks  introduced  Colonel  John  H.  George, 
who  spoke  for  about  an  hour,  his  remarks  being  greeted 
with  frequent  applause.  After  music  by  the  third  regiment 
band,  Mr.  Woodman  said  that  many  letters  had  been  re- 
ceived from  prominent  men  throughout  the  country,  and  read 
from  several  of  them. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  exercises  in  the  opera  house,  a 
reception  was  held  at  the  rooms  of  the  Webster  Club,  where 
many  prominent  citizens  of  the  city  and  State,  with  ladies, 


208  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

were  present.     An   elegant  lunch  was  served,  followed  by 
dancing  in  an  adjoining  hall. 

Exeter,  N.H.,  Jan.  18,  1882.— The  Phillips  Exeter 
Academy  celebrated  to-day  the  one  hundredth  birthday  of 
Webster,  a  former  alumnus.  Addresses  were  delivered  by 
Professor  Perkins  and  by  members  of  the  academy.  The 
exercises  were  interesting  and  impressive.  Many  things 
were  brought  out  concerning  his  school  life  hitherto  un- 
known. 

Portsmouth,  N.H.,  Jan.  18,  1882.  —  Special  exercises 
commemorative  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  birthday 
of  Daniel  Webster  took  place  to-day  at  the  high  school  in 
the  presence  of  goodly  numbers,  including  Mayor  Sise  and 
other  members  of  the  city  government,  clergy  and  prominent 
residents.  The  programme  embraced  original  historical 
papers  relating  to  the  distinguished  jurist's  settlement  in 
Portsmouth,  his  residence  here  and  incidents  in  his  public 
career,  interspersed  with  selected  orations  and  recitations 
from  Webster's  writings.  The  exercises  closed  with  ad- 
dresses by  Mayor  Sise  and  others.  Nearly  all  of  the  schools 
had  memorial  services. 


DARTMOUTH  WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL  DINNER 
IN  BOSTON. 

On  the  25th  of  January,  1882,  the  Association  of  the 
Alumni  of  Dartmouth  College  in  Boston  and  its  vicinity 
held,  at  the  Revere  House,  its  seventeenth  annual  reunion 
and  dinner,  which  took  the  form  of  a  celebration  of  the  cen- 
tennial of  the  birth  of  Daniel  Webster. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL-. 


209 


The  following-named  gentlemen  were  present :  - 


Charles  II.  Bell,  Governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  who  presided  at  the 
tables. 

Marshall  P.  Wilder. 

Walbridge  A.  Field,  of  the  Supreme 
Judicial  Court. 

Itcv.  S.  K.  Lothrop,  D.D. 

Stephen  M.  Allen. 

E.  S.  Tobey. 

Rev.  William  Burnet  Wright. 

Josiah  II.  Benton,  Jr. 

John  D.  Philbrick. 

C.  Q.  Tirrell,  of  Natick. 

George  W.  Morse,  of  Newton. 

Melvin  O.  Adams. 

E.  B.  Hale. 
A.  B.  Coffin. 
W.  E.  Jewell. 
Charles  F.  Kittredgp. 
General  Henry  K.  Oliver. 
George  William  Estabrook. 
John  L.  Hayes. 

Nathan  F.  Safford. 
Thomas  L.  Wakefield. 
Prof.  Ruggles. 
S.  II.  Goodall. 
Alphonso  J.  Robinson. 
Horatio  G.  Parker. 
Henry  W.  Fuller. 

F.  W.  Lincoln. 
Caleb  Emery. 

Rev.  H.  Allen  Hazen. 

G.  B.  Baleh. 
J.  L.  Hildreth. 
Calvin  Cutler. 
Rev.  E.  E.  Strong. 
Hiram  Orcutt. 
Prof.  C.  F.  Emerson. 
C.  E.  Dearborn. 
Baxter  P.  Smith. 

G.  II.  Holman. 
H.  II.  Kimball. 
F.  E.  Oliver. 
Lewis  Parkhurst. 
Ira  Russell. 


Albert  Palmer. 

George  A.  Harden. 

Rev.  Daniel  L.  Furbur. 

Judge  Mellen  Chamberlain. 

John  II.  George. 

J.  W.  Rollins. 

Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Wellman. 

T.  S.  Dame. 

John  F.  Colby. 

L.  S.  Fairbanks. 

N.  W.  Ladd. 

Dr.  John  A.  Lamson. 

John  II.  Hardy. 

Dr.  John  A.  Follett. 

James  B.  Riehardson. 

M.  W.  Tewksbury. 

M.  W.  Hazen. 

Rev.  C.  P.  F.  Bancroft. 

Solon  Bancroft. 

S.  N.  Crosby. 

Henry  Wardwell. 

J.  H.  Tyler. 

D.  H.  Brown. 

E.  II.  Davis. 
J.  W.  Allard. 
Judge  John  S.  Ladd. 

A.  R.  Brown. 

F.  W.  Choate- 
N.  C.  Berry. 

B.  Wood. 

Prof.  C.  O.  Thompson. 
S.  K.  Hamilton. 
S.  L.  Powers. 
I.  S.  Morse. 
E.  A.  Upton. 
Dr.  O.  G.  Cilley. 
Dr.  J.  F.  Jarvis. 
Charles  F.  Kimball. 
E.  C.  Carrigan. 
J.  G.  Edgerly. 

C.  W.  Thompson. 
J.  H.  Clark. 
Rev.  J.  B.  Clark. 
J.  T.  Gibson. 

H.  L.  Parker. 


210  THE  WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

L.  E.  Shepard.  William  B.  Stevens. 

W.  T.  Stevens.  D.  Foster. 

George  II.  Stevens.  J.  A.  Staples. 

William  II.  Haile.  C.  P.  Chase. 

J.  O.  Norris.  F.  Chase. 

H.  Hume.  L.  Cutler. 

S.  S.  WThite.  J.  H.  Butler. 
Dr.  C.  P.  Scales. 

Because  of  the  death  of  the  late  John  P.  Healy,  who  was 
President  of  the  Alumni  Association,  Mr.  George  W.  Morse 
presided  at  the  business  meeting  of  the  Association,  at  which 
these  officers  were  chosen  :  — 

President. 

Walbridge  A.  Field. 

Vice-Presidents. 

Judge  Caleb  Blodgett,  of  Boston ;  Rev.  William  Burnet  Wright, 

of  Boston ;  Rev.  C.  P.  F.  Bancroft,  of  Andover ;  William  II.  Haile, 

of  Springfield. 

Executive  Committee  for  three  years. 

George  W.  Morse,  of  Newton;  Joseph  G.  Edgerly,  of  Fitchburg. 

Secretary,  Alfred  S.  Hall,  of  Winchester. 

Treasurer,  C.  Q.  Tirrell,  of  Natick. 


Governor  Bell,  of  New  Hampshire,  who  presided,  welcomed 
the  Alumni  of  Dartmouth,  and  in  fitting  words  paid  a  tribute 
to  the  memory  of  Hon.  Harvey  Jewell  and  Hon.  J.  P.  Healy, 
former  members  of  the  Alumni,  and  concluded  by  introduc- 
ing the  Eev.  S.  K.  Lothrop,  D.D.  Mr.  Lothrop  delivered  an 
eloquent  address.  The  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder  and  the  Hon. 
E.  S.  Tobey  next  addressed  the  Alumni.  These  addresses  are 
published  in  phamplet  form  by  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  and  are 
well  worth  the  reading  by  all  who  revere  the  name  of  Web- 
ster. We  republish  here  the  two  concluding  speeches  by 
members  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  and  only  regret 
that  we  are  not  able  to  publish  all. 


*       THE  WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  211 

The  President  on  introducing  Mr.  Allen  said,  — 
"Gentlemen, — I  have   the    pleasure    of  introducing   the 
author  of  several  valuable  scientific  works,  who  was  an  inti- 
mate and  favorite  friend  of  Mr.  Webster  for  many  years,  — 
the  Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen." 

SPEECH  OF  HON.   STEPHEN  M.   ALLEN. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  : 

I  know  not  to  what,  or  to  whom,  I  am  primarily  indebted 
for  this  honor.  But  this  I  do  know,  that  the  name  of  Dart- 
mouth College,  as  connected  with  that  of  Daniel  Webster, 
has  been  vividly  impressed  upon  my  mind  since  childhood. 
In  maturer  life,  the  subject  became  more  interesting  from 
the  fact  that  the  present  legal  status  of  the  college  had  been 
established  in  the  year  of  my  own  birth,  through  the  efforts 
of  its  most  distinguished  alumnus  ;  and  that  my  family  rela- 
tions, who  had  been  educated  there,  ever  considered  it  a 
triumph  for  education  in  New  Hampshire,  and  a  crowning 
glory  to  Mr.  Webster.  My  acquaintance  with  the  great 
statesman  grew  entirely  out  of  family  associations,  and  was 
almost  wholly  private  and  social.  Both  of  my  grandfathers 
—  Japhet  Allen  and  Jeremiah  Gilman  —  were  with  Ebenezer 
Webster  in  the  Revolution ;  and  Colonel  David  Gilman,  my 
grandfather's  brother,  was  with  him  in  the  old  French  wars, 
under  Washington  and  Amherst.  Tradition  says  that  Rev. 
Samuel  Hidden,  of  Yarmouth,  N.H.,  aided  young  Webster 
in  the  study  of  his  classics,  wThen  the  latter  was  preceptor 
of  the  Academy  at  Fryeburg.  Daniel  Webster  and  my 
father  were  born  in  the  same  year,  took  lessons  from  the 
same  tutor ;  and  while  Mr.  Webster  Was  at  Fryeburg  Acad- 
emy, Mr.  Allen  taught  a  district  school  near  by,  and  was  a 
companion  of  Webster  on  many  a  fishing  and  rambling 
excursion  around  Mt.  Chocorua  and  the  tributaries  of  the 
Saco. 


212  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

My  first  sight  of  the  great  statesman  was  in  a  country 
village  in  New  Hampshire,  when  I  was  about  ten  years  of 
age ;  but  when  at  seventeen  I  came  to  Boston  and  was  first 
casually  introduced,  he  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  glory.  I 
had  been  taught  that  he  was  not  only  one  of  the  greatest, 
but  one  of  the  best,  men  the  country  had  ever  known  ;  and 
when  subsequently  I  made  myself  known  to  him  as  the  son 
of  an  old  friend,  the  great  heart  of  the  statesman  warmed  at 
once  to  me  through  the  memories  of  the  grandfather  and 
father ;  and  the  intimacy  lasted  till  Mr.  Webster's  death. 
For  some  years  after  my  first  introduction,  though  I  saw  but 
little  of  him,  I  watched  his  course  with  a  critic's  eye,  and 
became  convinced,  on  afterwards  knowing  him  better  per- 
sonally, that  all  and  more  that  had  been  early  taught  me  in 
his  favor  was  true.  He  again  introduced  his  son  Fletcher  to 
me,  whose  intimate  acquaintance,  with  that  of  his  family,  I 
ever  after  valued  and  have  kept  up  with  affectionate  remem- 
brance. 

It  was  my  privilege  also  to  have  heard  golden  words  eulo- 
gistic of  Mr.  Webster  from  many  of  his  contemporaries. 
Some  of  these  were  older,  and  life-long  friends.  Some  were 
associated  with  him  long  years  at  the  Bar,  while  others  were 
merchants  and  mechanics.  Among  these  were  Clay,  Cass, 
Benton,  Calhoun,  Talmadge,  Cor  win,  Conrad,  Crittenden 
and  Marshall ;  also  Jonathan  Mason,  Judge  Story,  Simon 
Greenleaf,  Rufus  Choate,  the  elder  Bowditch,  Thomas  H. 
Perkins,  the  elder  Winthrop,  his  old  schoolmaster  Tappan, 
and  some  of  the  influential  old  mechanics  of  Boston,  who 
possessed  his  confidence  and  esteem.  They  all  held  him  in 
the  highest  veneration,  and  awarded  him  all  the  honors  we 
accord  him  to-day.  During  the  last  few  years  previous  to 
his  death,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  writing  letters  to  his  life- 
long friend,  Hon.  Franklin  Haven,  who  was  at  liberty  to 
show  them  to  other  friends ;  and  my  heart  has  been  many 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  213 

times  thrilled  with  the   perusal   of  such  letters  through  the 
courtesy  of  Mr,  Haven. 

On  my  own  part,  I  found  Mr.  Webster  a  most  affectionate 
and  loving  friend,  and  ever  willing  to  instruct  and  advise  the 
lowliest  citizen  on  any  subject  brought  to  his  notice.  I  be- 
lieved him  to  be  the  most  exemplary  statesman  the  country 
had  ever  known,  and  a  consistent  Christian  ;  and  such  has 
been  the  testimony  of  all  who  knew  him  personally  and  well. 
The  two  daguerrotype  pictures  before  you  were  the  last  ever 
taken  of  Webster,  and  were  produced  at  Franklin,  N.H., 
about  three  months  before  his  death,  and  a  few  days  before 
he  left  that  town  for  the  last  time.  He  sent  them  to  me  as 
a  present,  with  some  other  tokens  of  remembrance.  lie  had 
contemplated  giving  a  dinner  there  to  twenty-five  young 
men  whom  he  authorized  Hon.  Peter  Butler  and  myself  to 
invite  ;  but  two  days  before  the  same  was  to  come  off,  he  was 
called  back  to  Washington  as  he  said,  for  a  day,  —  after  which 
he  went  to  Marshfield  but  to  die.  He  sent  for  me  to  meet 
him  at  the  Revere  House  on  his  arrival  in  the  city,  and  re- 
commended the  party  of  young  friends  to  go  up  and  have 
their  dinner,  the  fish  for  which  he  said  were  already  caught ; 
but  we  felt  no  heart  to  do  so,  and  declined.  He  was  at  this 
time  quite  feeble  from  an  old  complaint,  and  the  solemnity 
of  his  manner  seemed  to  me  prophetic  of  the  coming  calam- 
ity. I  well  remember  his  last  words,  and  the  impress  they 
then  made  upon  my  heart.  He  said,  "I  am  going  to  Wash- 
ington for  a  day,  and  then  I  shall  return  here  and  go  to 
Marshfield;  and  then — and  then  —  and  then  —  Mr.  Allen, 
I  don't  know  what !  " 

Mr.  Webster,  when  in  Boston,  often  visited  my  office  near 
State  street,  and  would  talk  with  the  familiarity  of  a  father. 
I  knew  and  often  saw  many  of  his  old  friends  in  the  West, 
to  whom  he  ever  wished  to  be  kindly  remembered  ;  and  once 
he  gave  me  some  five  hundred  of  his  speeches  for  the  young 


214  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

men  of  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Indiana.  At  Washington  he 
was  ever  accessible  to  those  that  called ;  and  whether  as 
Senator  of  Massachusetts,  Cabinet  officer,  or  private  friend, 
he  was  the  same  profound  but  genial  entertainer.  I  once 
dined  at  the  house  of  one  of  our  distinguished  representatives 
in  Congress  who  disliked  Mr.  Webster  with  the  bitterness 
of  his  whole  impetuous  nature,  and  also  supped  with  Mr. 
Webster  the  same  evening.  The  representative,  after  dinner, 
began  a  tirade  against  Mr.  Webster  and  some  of  the  other 
prominent  statesmen  while  we  walked  the  piazza,  and  became 
so  offensive  that  I  told  him  I  was  going  to  Mr.  Webster's 
house  to  tea,  and  begged  him  to  stop.  He  at  once  did  so, 
and  apologized.  How  different  the  evening  from  the  after- 
noon !  How  different  the  men  !  I  have  never  since  passed 
up  the  State  House  steps  between  those  two  men  standing  in 
bronze  before  its  portals,  but  I  call  to  mind  the  afternoon 
and  evening  I  spent  with  them,  respectively;  in  Washington, 
—  the  one,  a  gall  of  bitterness  to  his  enemies ;  the  other,  a 
Colossus  of  forbearance  and  Christian  charity  Mr.  Webster 
was  well  aware  of  this  bitterness,  and  of  my  acquaintance 
with  its  source  ;  yet  the  whole  evening  passed,  during  which 
there  was  only  one  caller,  and  not  a  word  of  unkindness  was 
spoken.  The  conversation  that  evening  was  mostly  of  the 
industries  of  the  civilized  world,  labor  and  capital,  and 
their  influence  upon  the  young  men  of  the  country,  and  the 
vast  resources  at  hand  for  their  future  field  of  labor  and  sup- 
port. He  contrasted  our  own  with  that  of  other  nations, 
freely  speaking  of  England  and  France.  He  touched  upon 
the  character  of  the  Pilgrims,  —  the  Lollards  of  England  as 
he  termed  them,  — and  of  the  religious  fanaticism  which  had 
cost  so  many  lives  in  olden  time,  and  of  the  difference  in  the 
spirit  divine  which  shone  forth  at  Calvary,  in  contrast  with 
that  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  and  that  of  the 
Waldenses.      Mr.   Webster's    knowledge   of  Scripture    was 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  215 

perfect,  and  his  quotations  were  always  elevating.  How 
often  in  hearing  him  have  I  thought  of  the  inspired  utterance 
of  the  blind  backwoods  preacher,  so  beautifully  expressed 
in  the  common  school-books  of  the  day,  where  majestically, 
with  an  elevated  voice,  he  exclaimed  :  "  Socrates  died  like  a 
man,  but  Jesus  Christ  like  a  God  !  "  I  never  knew  of  Mr. 
Webster's  uttering  an  irreverent  word,  and  in  but  one  note 
from  him  did  I  ever  detect  any  bitterness  towards  those  who 
had  so  wrongly  maligned  him.  He  was  at  last  pained  at 
the  coolness  of  some  of  his  friends  that  he  had  nourished  and 
sustained  through  life,  and  who  had  grown  rich  and  honored 
through  his  means,  but  who,  though  well  knowing  his  con- 
scientious views  of  carrying  out  the  Constitution,  were  will- 
ing to  join  in  the  cry  against  him  when  he  fulfilled  his  last 
duty  in  trying  to  preserve  the  Union  through  perfectly  con- 
stitutional means.  He  felt  that  the  abolitionists  of  Massa- 
chusetts had  greatly  wronged  their  State  and  him  by  turning 
a  popular  tide  of  abuse  against  him  for  simply  upholding 
the  Constitution  as  a  duty  in  its  darkest  day.  He  did  feel 
that  his  State  had  lowered  itself,  but  would  do  him  justice  in 
time  ;  and  in  a  note  to  me  in  1851,  he  said,  "It  would  rejoice 
me  more  than  almost  anything  else  to  see  Massachusetts  re- 
stored to  her  true  character  and  position." 

It  has  been  said  by  some  of  Mr.  Webster's  enemies  that 
he  bore  hard,  in  a  pecuniary  way,  upon  his  friends.  This,  in 
my  own  behalf,  and  in  behalf  of  one  of  his  most  intimate  but 
wealthy  friends,  I  can  positively  contradict.  Mr.  Webster 
well  knew,  from  the  year  1849  to  the  day  of  his  death,  that 
he  could  have  borroAved  from  me  at  any  time  a  few  thousand 
dollars,  payable  at  his  convenience.  He  never  asked  for, 
nor  in  any  manner,  direct  or  indirect,  did  he  receive  through 
or  from  me,  a  dollar  in  his  life  that  I  remember.  I  take 
pleasure  also  in  saying  the  same  of  his  son  Fletcher,  whom, 
from  his  father's  second  introduction  to  me  in  1850,  I  knew 


210  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

intimately  until  his  death.  A  continued  acquaintance  with 
his  family  since,  including  the  three  children  who  have  died, 
enables  me  to  say  the  same  of  them. 

Another  word  may  not  be  improper  in  regard  to  their  con- 
vivial habits,  for  which  they  have  also  been  maligned.  For 
the  last  ten  years  I  have  been  much  at  the  Webster  mansion 
as  the  guest  of  the  family  ;  have  often  stopped  two  or  three 
days  at  a  time  ;  have  frequently  dined  and  supped  there 
when  I  did  not  remain  over  night ;.  and  during  all  these  years 
I  never  saw,  or  saw  used,  a  drop  of  ardent  spirits  or  wine 
of  any  kind  about  the  house  or  upon  the  place.  I  take 
pleasure  in  saying  this,  in  justice  to  the  bereaved  and  widowed 
mother  of  a  large  family,  now  all  dead, — who  Avas  of  an 
illustrious  family  herself,  and  whose  heart  has  ever  opened 
to  every  good  word  and  work  illustrated  by  the  life  of  the 
husband  and  father  to  whom  the  country  has  owed  and  does 
still  owe  so  much. 

The  last  words  of  Daniel  Webster  to  me,  after  kindly 
asking  about  the  health  of  my  family,  were,  "God  bless  you 
and  them  !  "  and  I  treasure  these  words  as  a  blessing  from 
the  great,  the  good,  the  just  man.  In  comparison  with  other 
characters  m  greatness  and  goodness,  I  find  no  parallel  as 
statesman,  scholar,  citizen  or  friend.  In  my  judgment,  he 
combined  the  wisdom,  and  especially  the  fidelity,  of  Lycur- 
gus,  the  pre-eminent  political  genius  of  Solon,  the  oratori- 
cal powers  of  both  Demosthenes  and  Cicero,  with  the  dignity 
and  patriotism  of  Washington. 

I  now  call  upon  a  member  of  the  class  of  1858,  an  orator 
who  has  recently  served  with  acceptance  in  the  Senate  of 
Massachusetts,  — the  Hon.  Albert  Palmer. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  217 

SPEECH  OF  HOK.  ALBERT  PALMER. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen: 

As  a  son  of  New  Hampshire  and  of  Dartmouth,  I  am 
proud  to  be  here  to  join  with  you  this  evening  in  honoring 
the  majestic  memory  of  New  Hampshire's  and  Dartmouth's 
most  illustrious  son.  It  is  a  no  less  graceful  than  grateful 
custom,  —  one  which  is  always  honored  by  every  observance, 
and  one  which  should  never  be  neglected, — that  finds  an 
illustration  in  this  gathering.  We  cannot  too  devoutly  or 
too  constantly  revere  the  memories  of  those  illustrious  patri- 
ots and  statesmen  Avhose  names  and  fames  form  the  richest 
heritage  of  the  Republic,  and  of  whom  we  may  indeed  say, 
that,  though  dead,  "their  spirits  rule  us  from  their  urns." 

There  is  an  element  in  the  wealth  of  nations  which  Adam 
Smith  wrote  not  of,  and  of  which  the  frigid  and  prosaic 
science  of  political  economy  takes  no  account.  The  wealth 
of  nations,  gentlemen,  is  largely  made  up  of  monumental 
manhoods,  like  that  to  which  we  pay  homage  this  night.  In 
mediaeval  days,  it  was  the  custom,  as  one  brave  knight  after 
another  passed  away,  to  hang  his  banner  and  his  shield  above 
his  torn!) ;  and  whenever  his  descendants  were  summoned  to 
arms,  they  prepared  themselves  for  the  field  by  visiting  these 
proud  memorials  of  their  valiant  sires.  Thus  did  the  chiv- 
alry of  those  rude  times  draw  inspiration  from  the  fathers. 
The  example  of  feudalism  may  be  improved  upon  by  free 
peoples.  This  Republic  has  in  truth  a  glorious  knighthood, 
whose  banners  and  shields,  resting  above  their  ashes,  are 
emblems  of  inspiration  for  evermore,  to  be  gazed  upon  with 
reverent  eyes  and  appealed  to  Avith  grateful  hearts  whenever 
in  the  long  hereafter  supreme  emergencies  shall  summon 
their  posterity  to  supreme  efforts.  Whenever  and  wherever 
we  raise  a  statue  or  build  a  shrine  to  one  of  the  long  line  of 
American  worthies, — an  Adams,  a  Franklin,  a  Jefferson,  a 


218  THE  WEBSTER  CENTENNIAL. 

Jackson,  a  Lincoln  or  a  Garfield,  —  we  build  better  than 
perhaps  we  know.  Such  memories  are  the  hostages  which 
the  great  Past  gives  to  the  greater  Future.  And  every  mar- 
ble column  that  we  raise  to  give  them  perpetual  remembrance 
is  a  silent  sentinel  posted  on  the  ramparts  of  republican  gov- 
ernment, which  shall  challenge  our  children  and  our  children's 
children  to  remember  the  countersign  of  freedom.  It  is  not. 
for  the  dead  only,  or  chiefly,  that  we  erect  these  monuments, 
but  for  ourselves  and  those  who  shall  come  after  us  ;  that 
these  effigies  in  stone  and  bronze  may,  looking  down  upon 
us  in  the  calm  serenity  of  their  mute  grandeur,  pledge  to  us 
the  fulfilment  of  the  poet's  prophecy,  — 

"  And  often  from  that  other  world  on  this 

Some  gleams  from  great  souls  gone  before  may  shine. 
To  shed  on  struggling  hearts  a  clearer  bliss. 
And  clothe  the  right  with  lustre  more  divine."" 

Anions  those  "srreat  souls  o;one  before,"  that  of  Daniel 
Webster  is  most  assuredly  one  of  the  greatest.  Nor  can  it 
be  at  this  late  date  at  all  doubtful  what  manner  of  message 
his  immortal  voice  will  carry  down  to  the  coming  genera- 
tions. The  fierce  passions  of  the  conflict  on  whose  threshold 
his  Titanic  form  looms  up,  overshadowing  all  the  lesser 
actors  in  the  prologue  to  the  drama  of  Secession,  have  at 
length  happily  passed  away.  The  murky  atmosphere  of 
partisan  fury  and  malice  which  enveloped  the  figures  of  the 
contestants  in  that  long  and  bitter  war  of  ideas  which  pre- 
ceded the  war  of  swords,  no  longer  obscures  them  from  our 
view.  Now  that  we  have  reached  the  time  when  we  can 
survey  the  field  of  carnage  itself  with  calmness  and  candor, 
we  may  certainly  examine  the  field  of  controversy  which 
antedated  it,  with  dispassionate  eyes  ;  and  on  that  memorable 
field  of  controversy  I  take  it  that  no  man  at  these  tables 
doubts  what  place  and  what  part  belong  to  Daniel  Webster. ' 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  219 

It  was  a  field  in  which  giants  strove  with  giants,  and  the 
stake  was  proportionally  haary.  In  those  eventful  years 
durinar  which  Webster  represented  Massachusetts  in  the 
Senate,  the  pleadings  were  being  made  up  upon  which  final 
issue  was  to  be  taken  ten  years  after  he  had  "joined  the  great 
majority."  I  think  —  I  know  I  am  sustained  by  history  in 
saying  that  this  was  the  master-mind  that  shaped  the  case, 
not  for  the  North,  not  for  the  South,  but  for  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union ;  and  shaped  it  so  clearly,  so  conclusively, 
that,  from  the  moment  when  he  sat  down  after  his  historic 
reply  to  Hayne,  to  the  moment  when  arms  took  the  place  of 
arguments,  no  material  word  Avas  added  thereto.  The  argu- 
ment was  all  in  then,  and  the  case  was  as  ready  then  for  the 
jury  as  it  was  in  1861.  There  is  not  a  single  line  of  defence 
for  the  right  of  secession  which  is  not  broken  by  that  speech  ; 
nor  is  there  a  single  line  of  defence  for  the  indestructibility 
of  the  Union  which  is  not  advanced  and  maintained  within 
its  comprehensive  limits.  It  was  the  prophetic  anticipation, 
by  a  span  of  full  thirty  years,  of  every  constitutional  conten- 
tion that  was  submitted  to  a  bloody  settlement  three  decades 
after  its  delivery.  The  whole  range  of  parliamentary  records 
may  be  searched  in  vain  for  a  parallel  exhibition  of  prescient 
statesmanship. 

I  believe,  gentlemen,  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  a  new  read- 
ing and  a  truer  interpretation  of  this  great  man.  He  has 
been,  if  not  misunderstood,  very  imperfectly  understood. 
So  long  as  the  war  and  the  issues  growing  out  of  the  war 
occupied  the  national  mind,  the  popular  judgment  was  in  no 
condition  to  consider  with  patience  or  assign  with  accuracy 
the  place  of  Daniel  Webster  in  our  history.  We  have  all 
felt  that  it  must  be  a  great  place,  but  how  great  we  have,  I 
believe,  yet  to  realize.  It  has  been  well  remarked  by  Mr. 
Whipple,  that  the  names  of  Edmund  Burke  and  Daniel 
Webster  hold  equal  and  lonely  rank  among  the  parliamentary 


220  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

orators  of  their  respective  countries.  Their  distinction  is 
that  their  utterances  have  survived  the  occasions  of  their 
delivery,  and  are  incorporated  into  the  enduring  body  of  our 
standard  literature.  The  reason  of  this  is  not  obscure. 
Other  party  leaders  spoke  for  their  party  and  for  the  passing 
party  exigency,  and  for  them  only.  Burke  spoke  to  all  Eng- 
land, and  Webster  to  all  America,  for  all  time  to  come.  No 
party  can  claim  them  as  exclusively  its  own :  their  genius 
was  essentially  national  in  its  grasp  and  devotion.  We  may 
as  well  attempt  to  distort  the  patriotic  teachings  of  Wash- 
ington's farewell  address  into  the  dogmas  of  a  party,  as  to 
construct  the  narrow  platform  of  a  faction  with  the  broad 
timbers  of  Webster's  superb  deliverances.  No  reflecting  man 
can  peruse  his  voluminous  utterances  on  the  public  themes 
of  his  time,  beginning  with  his  argument  in  behalf  of  his  be- 
loved Alma  Mater  before  the  Supreme  Cour  of  the  United 
States  in  1818,  and  ending  with  his  address  on  the  laying  of 
the  corner-stone  of  the  addition  to  the  nation's  capitol  in 
1851,  without  being  impressed,  above  all  other  impressions, 
with  the  breadth,  the  comprehensiveness,  the  universality, 
and  the  untainted  and  unfaltering  patriotism  of  Webster's 
mind.  An  intelligent  perusal  of  these  masterpieces  of  ora- 
tory is  of  itself  a  complete  education  in  all  the  essential 
branches  of  political  science.  As  time  goes  on  we  cannot 
doubt  that  they  will  become  more  and  more  prized  as  a 
grand  portion  of  the  inspired  scriptures  of  American  states- 
manship. If  the  political  economist  of  this  or  some  future 
day  shall  seek  for  a  clear  and  convincing  exposition  of  the 
philosophy  of  protection  and  free  trade,  he  will  find  it  here  ; 
if  he  shall  seek  to  know  and  understand  the  exact  relations 
of  the  States  to  the  nation,  the  precise  nature  of  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  former  and  of  the  supremacy  of  the  latter,  he 
will  find  it  here  ;  if  he  shall  seek  to  know,  as  many  of  us  are 
seeking  to  know  at  this  time,  the  true  relations  of  the  Execu- 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  221 

five  to  public  patronage,  and  the  proper  limitations  to  the 
exercise  of  the  appointing  and  removing  power,  then  he  will 
find  all  that  here  too.  But  above  all,  sir,  he  will  find  in 
Webster's  public  addresses  that  masterly  elucidation  of  the 
fundamental  principles  on  which  this  government  rests,  and 
on  which  alone  it  can  be  perpetuated,  which  have  given  to 
their  illustrious  author  his  right  to  that  grand  title,  "The 
Expounder  and  Defender  of  the  Constitution." 

I  do  not  for  one  moment  exempt  from  this  sincere  judg- 
ment and  this  inadequate  praise  that  memorable  speech  of 
the  7th  of  March,  1850,  to  which,  many  years  after  its  de- 
livery, the  term  "  infamous  "  was  freely  applied.  I  believe  I 
am  not  lacking  in  admiration  for  that  Spartan  band  of  politi- 
cal pioneers  who,  at  the  time  that  famous  speech  was  deliv- 
ered, were  the  extreme  vanguard  of  the  noble  army  of  mar- 
tyrs who  eleven  years  later  were  to  make  the  soil  of  the 
Eepublic  free  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  from 
Maine  to  the  Gulf;  but,  sir,  I  cannot  conscientiously  sub- 
scribe —  and  never  did  —  to  the  characterization  of  that  7th 
of  March  speech  as  infamous.  It  was  not  the  speech  of  an 
Abolitionist  or  a  Free  Soiler  ;  it  was  not  a  radical  speech  as 
the  term  "  radical "  is  commonly  used  :  it  was  a  speech  that 
breathed  the  spirit  of  compromise  and  conciliation.  It  was 
denounced  then  and  for  many  years  afterwards  as  "a  sur- 
render to  the  slave  power."  I  doubt  if  that  description  of 
it  will  find  anything  like  unanimous  assent  to-day ;  and  ere 
another  decade  has  passed,  I  believe  it  will  be  rejected  as  a 
wholly  unjust  estimate  of  its  real  character.  In  the  final 
judgment  of  history,  I  am  confident,  it  will  be  regarded  as 
the  honest  appeal  of  a  great  mind,  patriotically  zealous  for 
the  preservation  of  the  Union  above  all  things,  and  for  the 
sacred  observance  of  the  Constitution,  which  he  regarded 
as  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  to  that  conservative  body  of 
opinion,  which,  as  he  then  sinoerely  believed,  must  rescue 


222  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

them  from  the  extremists  of  both  sections,  if  they  were  to  be 
rescued  at  all.     It  was  not  given  to  him  to  see  that  there 
was  an  irrepressible  conflict  that  could  not  be  compromised. 
He  shrank  from  any  such  conclusion.     "I  hear,"  said  he,  in 
that  too  little  appreciated   speech, — "I  hear  with  distress 
and  anguish  the  word  secession  !  secession  !  peaceable  seces- 
sion !     Sir,  your  eyes  and  mine  are   never  destined  to  see 
that  miracle."     And  then  followed  that  splendid  figure,  bor- 
rowed from  the  imagery  of  the  universe  :    "  He  who    sees 
these   States  now  revolving  in  harmony  around  a  common 
centre,  and  expects  to  see  them  quit  their  places  and  fly  off 
without  convulsion,  may  look  the  next  hour  to  see  the  heav- 
enly bodies  rush  from  their  spheres  and  jostle  against  each 
other  in  the  realms  of  space  without  causing  the  wreck  of  the 
universe.    There  can  be  no  such  thing  as  peaceable  secession. 
Peaceable  secession  is  an  utter  impossibility."    I  cannot* think 
of  that  speech  in  which  these  solemn  and  prophetic  words 
occur,  and  many  more  of  like  import  and  power,  and  write 
it  down  as  infamous,  or  as  a  surrender  to  the  slave  power. 
Whenever  that  accusation  is  made,  I  call  to  mind  a  passage  in 
that  speech  which  nobly  resents  and  repels  a  Southern  Senator's 
conceited  criticisms  and  arraignment  of  Northern  labor  and 
the  Northern  laborer,  in  comparison  with  the  slave  and  the 
slave  labor  of  the  South.     What  particle  of  subserviency  can 
be  detected  in  these  Websterian  words  ?    "  Why,  who  are  the 
laboring  people  of  the  North  ?     They  are  the  whole  North. 
They  are  the  people  who  till  their  own  farms  with  their  OA\Tn 
hands,  — freeholders,  educated  men,  independent  men.    Let 
me  say,  sir,  that  five  sixths   of  the  whole  property  of  the 
North  is  in  the  hands  of  the  laborers  of  the  North ;   they  cul- 
tivate their  farms,  they  educate  their  children,  they  provide 
the  means  of  independence.     If  they  are  not  freeholders, 
they  earn  wages ;  these  wages  accumulate,  are  turned  into 
capital,  into  new  freeholds,  and  small  capitalists  are  created. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  223 

Such  is  the  case  and  such  the  course  of  things  among  the  in- 
dustrious and  frugal.  And  what  can  these  people  think, 
when  so  respectable  and  worthy  a  gentleman  as  the  member 
from  Louisiana  undertakes  to  prove  that  the  absolute  ignor- 
ance and  the  abject  slavery  of  the  South  are  more  in  con- 
formity with  the  high  purposes  and  destiny  of  immortal 
rational  human  beings  than  the  educated,  the  independent, 
free  labor  of  the  North?"  When  that  accusation  is  made,  I 
recall  again  those  warning  Avords  to  Southern  gentlemen  who 
were  preparing  to  hold  a  convention  in  Nashville.  This  is 
the  message  which  the  7th  of  March  speech  delivered  to 
them  •  "If  they  meet  for  any  purpose  hostile  to  the  Union, 
they  have  been  singularly  inappropriate  in  their  selection  of 
a  place.  I  remember,  sir,  when  the  treaty  of  Amiens  was 
concluded  between  France  and  England,  a  sturdy  English- 
man and  a  distinguished  orator,  who  regarded  the  conditions 
of  the  peace  as  ignominious  to  England,  said  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  that  if  King  William  could  know  the  terms  of  that 
treaty  he  would  turn  in  his  coffin  !  Let  me  commend  this 
saying  of  Mr.  Windham  in  all  its  force  to  any  persons  who 
shall  meet  at  Nashville  for  the  purpose  of  concerting  meas- 
ures for  the  overthrow  of  this  Union  over  the  bones  of  An- 
drew Jackson."  How  much  does  Webster  stoop  or  bend  in 
that  passage  !  Or  will  his  opponents  charge  that  it  is  a 
fragment  of  the  "  first  brief,"  about  which  they  pretend  to 
know  so  much? 

To  all  the  reckless  and  ignorant  defamation  of  that  speech, 
I  present  the  lofty  patriotism  which  inspires  it  through  and 
through.  Its  closing  sentences  rise  to  the  full  height  of  that 
earlier  eloquence  of  1830,  and  link  themselves  with  it  in  fit 
and  immortal  companionship.  Who  can  forget  the  picture 
of  the  Republic  which  Webster  paints  in  the  three  sentences 
with  which  he  ends  the  famous  speech?  "This  Republic 
now  extends  with  a  vast  breadth  across  the  whole  continent. 


224  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

The  two  2freat  seas  of  the  world  wash  the  one  and  the  other 

o 

shore.     We  realize  on  a  mighty  scale  the  beautiful  descrip- 
tion of  the  ornamental  border  of  the  buckler  of  Achilles  : 

1  Now.  the  broad  shield  complete  the  artist  crowned 
With  his  last  hand,  and  poured  the  ocean  round; 
In  living  silver  seemed  the  waves  to  roll, 
And  beat  the  buckler's  verge  and  bound  the  whole.'  '1 

Webster  lifted  the  Republic  to  the  gaze  of  his  countrymen 
as  if  full  sure  that  no  other  argument  or  exhortation  could 
be  needed  to  inspire  all  hearts  for  its  defence,  and  wither 
any  hand  raised  to  divide  and  destroy  it.  Bacon  appealed 
from  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  his  time,  and  bequeathed 
his  name  and  memory  "to  men's  charitable  speeches  and  to 
foreign  nations  and  the  next  ages."  Our  own  idolized  war 
governor,  great  and  brave  as  Sam  Adams,  keenly  felt  that 
he  had  confronted  and  offended  public  sentiment,  and  dedi- 
cated the  greatest  speech  of  his  life  to  the  future  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Webster  met  the  7th  of  March,  1850,  and  neither 
supplicated  the  present  nor  implored  the  future.  He  was 
serenely  satisfied  and  proud  to  speak,  "not  as  a  Massachu- 
setts man,  nor  as  a  Northern  man,  but  as  an  American,  and 
a  member  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States."  With  una- 
bated and  undisturbed  self-respect  he  wrote  upon  the  title- 
page  of  his  speech,  "  With  the  highest  respect  and  the  deep- 
est sense  of  obligation,  I  dedicate  this  speech  to  the  people 
of  Massachusetts."  And  then  he  added  the  great  words  of 
the  great  Roman  statesman  : 

"I  know  there  are  other  things  more  agreeable  to  be  spoken  than 
these  things,*  but  necessity  compels  me  to  speak  true  things  instead  of 
pleasing  things,  although  my  inclination  might  not  prompt  it.  I  could 
wish,  indeed,  to  please  you ;  but  I  much  prefer  that  you  should  be  saved, 
however  you  may  be  disposed  in  mind  towards  me.'' 

It  is  idle,  as  we  all  agree,  to  speculate  on  what  might  have 

been. 

"  Not  Heaven  itself  upon  the  Past  hath  power." 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  225 

And  yet  there  is  a  temptation  that  rises  unbidden,  and  urges 
the  imagination  to  picture  what  might  have  been  the  course 
of  history  if  to  the  voice  of  Webster  pleading  for  a  pacific 
adjustment  there  had  been  added  other  voices,  from  North 
and'  South  alike,  until  the  chorus  of  the  peacemakers  had 
drowned  the  clamors  of  the  extremists  of  both  sections  ! 
Webster,  at  least,  saw  the  end  from  the  beginning.  lie  had 
discerned  the  precipice  of  civil  war  in  1830,  as  clearly 
appears  in  his  reply  to  Hayne  ;  and  in  1850  he  saw  its  yawn- 
ing mouth  still  nearer.  The  height  and  depth  of  his  offend- 
ing was  this,  — that  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  do  aught 
but  struggle  against  the  inevitable.  To  me,  at  least,  and  I 
doubt  not  to  many  others,  the  attitude  of  this  majestic  man, 
this  monarch  among  men,  in  view  of  the  storm  whose  first 
mighty  mutterings  greeted  his  dying  ears,  is  full  of  pathetic 
grandeur.  He  saw  only  the  gulf  towards  which  his  fellow- 
countrymen  were  rushing ;  he  beheld  in  advance  the  deluge 
of  blood  and  tears  which  was  to  follow,  — and  in  an  agony 
of  spirit  he  pleaded  that  the  bitter  cup  might  pass  from  the 
lips  of  the  people  he  had  loved  and  served  so  well.  Well, 
sir,  that  cup  was  destined  to  be  drained  to  its  last  bitter 
dregs  ;  and  it  is  our  good  fortune  to  live  to  see  what  Web- 
ster despaired  of,  — the  Constitution  and  the  Union  surviving 
the  shock  of  civil  war,  with  a  new  guarantee  of  perpetuity, 
because  no  slave  treads  the  soil  or  breathes  the  air  of  the 
Republic. 

And  Webster  still  lives,  and  will  live  in  all  the  future  of 
Uiese  United  States.  His  far-seeing  statesmanship  and  all- 
rmbracing  patriotism  is  the  lesson  and  the  wisdom  for  this 
day  and  hour,  as  it  was  for  his  own  day  and  hour.  Only  his 
devoted  loyalty  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  become 
once  more  and  for  evermore  the  common  creed  of  all  our 
people,  North,  South,  East  and  West,  can  bind  and  keep  us 
one,  and  make   it   impossible  for  this  "government  of  the 


226  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

people  to  perish  from  the  earth."  The  danger  which  threat- 
ened the  Union  in  his  day  is  not  now,  nor  is  it  ever  again 
likely  to  become  formidable.  "Nullification"  and  "  seces- 
sion" are  obsolete  words,  having  only  an  historical  interest. 
That  centrifugal  madness  is  spent ;  that  dance  of  death  has 
stopped,  and  the  lights  are  out.  But  it  is  fatal  to  rush  head- 
long into  the  central  sun  as  well  as  from  it  into  outer  dark- 
ness. In  this  Republic,  so  long  as  it  shall  endure,  and  if  it 
endures,  it  will  be  the  task  and  test  of  statesmanship  to  keep 
these  revolving  States  ill  the  middle  course  around  their  cen- 
tral government.  "Medio  tutissimus  ibis"  are  the  warning 
words  of  an  ancient  poet :  they  must  be  the  divine  command- 
ment of  American  statesmanship.  This  middle  way,  and  this 
alone,  leads  up  to  perfect  safety,  the  best  liberty,  and  ever- 
increasing  renown.  On  this  radiant  pathway  of  the  Consti- 
tution and  the  Union  the  towering  form  of  Webster  will 
never  fade  from  the  vision  of  America. 

.  Gentlemen,  —  the  memory  of  Webster  :  it  will  live  for- 
ever in  the  glory  of  his  country  and  in  the  reverence  of  man- 
kind. The  statesmanship  of  Webster  :  it  can  never  lose  its 
power,  for  only  in  its  spirit  can  the  Republic  have  hope  of 
immortal  life. 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  HENRY  NT.  HUDSON,  LL.D. 
The  following  extracts  from  the  address  of  the  Rev.  Henry 
N.  Hudson,  LL.D.,  an  honorary  member  of  the  Webster 
Historical  Society,  delivered  January  18,   1882,  have  been 
selected  by  permission  of  the  author  :  — 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  —  One  hundred  years  ago  to-day, 
a  very  quiet  but  vastly  fruitful  event  took  place  up  in  New 
Hampshire  :   it  was  the  birth  of  Daniel  Webster.     The  city 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  227 

of  Boston  and  the  State  of  Massachusetts  had  this  great  man 
in  the  counsels  of  the  nation  nearly  twenty-eight  years ;  and 
I  think  I  may  safely  say  that,  from  his  presence  and  services 
there,  they  have  reaped  more  of  honor  and  of  solid  benefit 
than  from  all  the  other  men  they  have  had  in  that  place  dur- 
ing the  last  two  generations  put  together.  Such  being  the 
case,  I  had  hoped  that  Boston  would  remember  her  illustri- 
ous citizen,  her  peerless  statesman,  and  make  some  fitting 
commemoration  of  the  day.  She  has  not  seen  fit  to  do  so  ; 
and  this  is  one  reason  why  I  have  undertaken  to  do  what  I 
can,  to  manifest  a  becoming  respect  for  the  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  Daniel  Webster's  birth.  I  fear,  indeed,  that 
Boston  has  not  yet  fully  recovered  from  that  old  disease 
under  which  she  turned  away  from  her  greatest  and  loveliest 
man,  this  too  in  his  gray-haired  age,  and  even  "struck  him 
with  her  tongue,  most  serpent-like,  upon  the  very  heart."  In 
earlier  days,  she  seems  indeed  to  have  understood  and  appre- 
ciated Webster  pretty  well ;  yet  I  was  much  taken,  some 
years  ago,  with  a  remark  made  to  me  by  the  late  Judge 
Redfield,  that  "  Boston  never  could  get  water  enough  together 
to  float  him." 

Webster  was  not  only  a  great  lawyer,  a  great  orator, 
a  great  statesman,  a  great  author,  a  mighty  discourser :  he 
was  emphatically  a  great  man, — great  in  intellect,  great  in 
eloquence,  great  in  soul,  great  in  character,  and  in  all  the 
proper  correspondences  of  greatness.  Mr.  Whipple,  in 
the  admirable  essay  prefixed  to  his  selection  of  Webster's 
speeches,  aptly  and  felicitously  applies  to  him  the  phrase, 
"colossal  manhood."  I  really  do  not  know  of  any  other 
single  phrase  that  fits  the  subject  so  well.  Those  who  often 
heard  Webster  in  familiar  conversation,  if  any  such  survive, 
will  probably  tell  us  they  never  heard  any  one  else  who 
approacn^d  him  in  that   respect.      On   such   occasions   he 


228  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

not  seldom  had  the  Bible   for  his  theme ;    and  those  who 
listened  to  his  talk  thereon  could  hardly  choose  but  believe 
that  either  the  Bible  was  inspired  or  else  the  speaker  was. 
But,  in  "the  talk  that  man  holds  with  week-day  man,"  his 
greatness  was  so  tempered  with  sweetness  and  amiability, 
and  with  the  finer  and  softer  graces  of  eloquence,  that  one 
naturally  lost  the  sense  of  it.     For  he  had  no  airs  of  supe- 
riority ;   would  chat  with  the  humblest  as  with  a  brother  or 
a  friend.     And  I  have  it  from  those  who  knew  him  long  and 
well,  that  intimacy  never  wore  off  the  impression  of  his  great- 
ness ;  on  the  contrary,  none  could  get  so  near  him,  or  stay 
near  him  so  long,  but  that  he  still  kept  growing  upon  them. 
A  test  that  few  men  indeed  can  stand  !     But  he  had  some- 
thing better  than  all  this  :   he  was  as  lovely  in  disposition  as 
he  was  great  in  mind.     A  larger,  warmer,  manlier  heart,  a 
heart  more  alive  with  tenderness  and  all  the  gentle  affections, 
was  never  lodged  in  a  human  breast.     Of  this  I  could  give 
many  telling  and  touching  proofs  from  his  private  history, 
if  time  would  permit.     It  has  been  worthily  noted  how  a 
little  child,  on  entering  a  room  where  Webster  was  seated, 
and  looking  up  into  his  great  eyes,  as  these  grew  soft  and 
mellow  and    sweet   at   the  vision,  would   run    instinctively 
into  his  arms  and  nestle  in  his  bosom,  as  if  yearning  to  get 
as  near  as  possible  to  that  great  tender  heart.     So  that  I 
make  no  scruple  of  regarding  Daniel  Webster  as  the  crown- 
ing illustration  of  our  American  manhood. 

As  it  is  now  nearly  thirty  years  since  Webster  died,  I  may 
safely  presume  that  many  of  you,  perhaps  most  of  you, 
never  heard  or  saw  him.  I  will  therefore  endeavor  to  give 
some  personal  description  of  the  man.  I  saw  him  a  great 
many  times,  and  heard  him  repeatedly ;  and  you  may  be 
sure  my  eyes  and  ears  were  seldom  idle  or  wandering  when 
they  had  him  in  view.     He  was   indeed  incomparably  the 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  229 

finest-looking  —  rather  say  the  grandest-looking  —  man  I  ever 
set  eyes  on.  I  doubt  whether,  in  personal  appearance,  his 
peer  was  to  be  found  anywhere  on  the  planet  during  his 
time ;  and  I  can  well  accept  as  authentic  the  remark  said  to 
have  been  made  by  some  one,  that  Daniel  Webster  must  be 
a  humbug,  for  no  man  could  possibly  be  so  great  as  he 
looked  to  be.  In  stature  he  was  of  medium  height,  about 
five  feet  and  ten  or  eleven  inches,  I  should  say ;  his  form 
well-proportioned,  robust  and  vigorous  ;  his  frame  close-knit 
and  firm-set ;  his  step  resolute  and  fearless ;  his  carriage 
erect  and  manly ;  his  presence  dignified  and  impressive  in 
the  highest  degree.  His  complexion  was  dark,  insomuch 
that  he  is  said  in  his  early  years  to  have  been  familiarly 
called  "  black  Dan ; "  his  hair  a  pure  raven  black,  till  time 
sprinkled  it  with  snows.  I  am  little  booked  in  physiology, 
but  I  should  say  his  temperament  was  bilious  sanguineous, 
as  Burke's  appears  to  have  been  nervous  sanguineous.  His 
features  were  large  and  strong,  but  finely  chiselled ;  his  neck 
thick  and  sinewy,  — a  fitting  support  for  the  magnificent 
dome  poised  upon  it ;  his  chin  prominent  just  to  the  point 
where  firmness  stops  short  of  obstinacy;  his  mouth  calm 
and  muscular;  his  eyes  big,  dark  and  blazing,  —  in  his 
excited  moments  they  literally  seemed  two  globes  of  fire ; 
his  forehead  high,  broad,  projecting  and  massive, —  a  very 
cathedral  indeed  of  thought;  and  the  whole  suffused  and 
harmonized  with  an  air  of  majestic  grace. 

So  that  the  predominant  expression  of  his  face  and  head 
was  that  of  immense  power,  but  of  power  held  perfectly  in 
hand,  and  therefore  sure  to  know  its  time.  Hawthorne,  in 
his  "  Marble  Faun,"  has  an  expression  so  fine  in  itself  and  so 
apposite  to  Webster,  that  ever  since  my  first  reading  of  th« 
book,  it  has  stuck  to  my  memory  in  connection  with  him. 
Speaking  of  the  celebrated  bronze  statue  of  Marcus  Aurclius 
the  Emperor,  he  says,  "Its  very  look  is  at  once  a  command 


230  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

and  a  benediction."  In  his  later  years  Webster  was  often 
spoken  of  as  "the  godlike  Daniel;"  and,  sure  enough,  the 
heads  that  I  have  seen  of  old  god  Jupiter  do  not  show  an 
ampler  dome  or  a  more  commanding  outlook  of  intellectual 
majesty.  Doubtless  it  was  greatly  owing  to  this  expression 
of  innate  power  which  radiated  from  him,  that  even  in  his 
old  age,  when  many  minds  were  full  of  devouring  thoughts 
about  him,  wherever  he  was  present  in  person  he  was  like 
Daniel  in  the  lions'  den  :  the  lions  might  indeed  growl  be- 
hind their  teeth,  but  they  swallowed  their  rage,  and  dared 
not  open  their  mouths  to  bite  him.  Webster  was  a  modest 
man ;  everything  about  him  was  unaffected,  genuine ;  no 
assumption,  no  arrogance,  no  conceit ;  his  dignity  of  manner, 
his  greatness  of  look,  were  native  to  him ;  and  the  impres- 
sion his  speaking  always  made  upon  me  was  such  that  I  can- 
not better  describe  it  than  as  follows  :  — 

With  grave 
Aspect  he  rose,  and  in  his  rising  seem'd 
A  pillar  of  State ;  deep  on  his  front  engraven 
Deliberation  sat,  and  public  care ;  , 

And  princely  counsel  in  his  face  did  shine 

Majestic  : sage  he  stood, 

With  Atlantean  shoulders  tit  to  bear 
The  weight  of  mightiest  monarchies ;  his  look 
Drew  audience  and  attention  still  as  night, 
Or  Summer's  noontide  air. 

Webster's  vast  power  of  intellect  is  admitted  by  all ;  but 
it  is  not  so  generally  known  that  he  was  as  sweet  as  he  was 
powerful,  and  nowhere  more  powerful  than  in  his  sweetness. 
When  thoroughly  aroused  in  public  speech,  there  was  indeed 
something  terrible  about  him  ;  his  huge  burning  eye  seemed 
to  bore  a  man  through  and  through  :  but  in  his  social  hours, 
when  his  massive  brow  and  features  were  lighted  up  with 
a  characteristic  smile,  it  was  like  a  gleam  of  Paradise ;  no 
person  who  once  saw  that  full-souled  smile  of  his  could  ever 


HE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  231 

forget  it.  His  goodly  person,  his  gracious  bearing,  and  his 
benignant  courtesy  made  him  the  delight  of  every  circle  he 
entered.  In  the  presence  of  ladies,  especially,  his  great 
powers  seemed  to  robe  themselves  spontaneously  in  beauty ; 
and  his  attentions  were  so  delicate  and  so  respectful  that 
they  could  net  but  be  charmed. 

In  the  summer  of  1839,  Webster,  with  several  members 
of  his  family,  made  a  private  visit  to  England  ;  and  it  is  both 
pleasant  and  edifying  to  learn  how  he  impressed  the  people 
there.  Hallam,  we  are  told,  was  "extremely  struck  by  his 
appearance,  deportment  and  conversation."  Carlyle  pro- 
nounced him  "a  magnificent  specimen;"  adding,  withal, 
that,  "as  a  parliamentary  Hercules,  one  would  incline  to 
back  him  at  first  sight  against  all  the  extant  world."  Mr. 
John  Kenyon  travelled  with  him  four  days.  Writing,  in 
1853,  to  Mr.  George  Ticknor,  of  Boston,  he  says  that  the 
acquaintance  thus  formed  "  enabled  me  to  know  and  to  love 
not  only  the  great-brained,  but  large-hearted,  genial  man  ; 
and  this  love  I  have  held  for  him  ever  since,  through  good 
report  and  evil  report ;  and  I  shall  retain  this  love  for  him  to 
the  day  of  my  own  departure."  Again,  referring  to  some  of 
Webster's  playful  sallies  :  "  Fancy  how  delightful  and  how 
attaching  I  found  all  this  genial  bearing  from  so  famous  a 
man;  so  affectionate,  so  little  of  a  humbug.  His  greatness 
sat  so  easy  and  calm  upon  him ;  he  never  had  occasion  to 
whip  himself  into  a  froth." 

Webster's  service  to  the  country  was  fully  commensurate 
with  his  greatness  as  a  man.  It  may  well  be  questioned, 
indeed,  whether  even  Washington  himself  did  the  nation 
greater  service  than  he  ;  for  without  our  American  Union 
the  achievement  of  our  American  independence  could  hardly 
have  proved  a  blessing.  And  so  1  think  the  history  shows 
us  that,  during  the  interval  from  the  Re  volution  to  the  Con- 


232  THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

stitution,  the  States  were  not  nearly  so  well  off  as  they  had 
been  under  the  British  rule.  That  rule  was  of  course  im- 
perial ;  and  such,  in  substance  and  effect,  is  the  rule  of  our 
national  government  now.  And,  surely,  some  such  para- 
mount and  inclusive  authority  was  and  ever  must  be  needful 
in  order  to  keep  peace  between  the  States  ;  otherwise  it  were 
hardly  possible  to  prevent  a  chronic  antagonism  and  bloody 
quarrels  from  springing  up  amongst  them.  There'seems  to 
be,  indeed,  for  the  American  people,  no  middle  or  tenable 
ground  between  the  government  of  our.  present  national 
Union  and  that  state  of  things,  at  once  horrible  and  con- 
temptible, which  we  call  Mexicanism;  and,  rather  than  the 
nation  should  become  Mexicanized,  it  were  far  better  that 
the  whole  land,  with  all  the  people  on  it,  should  be  sunk  in 
the  depths  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

Be  this  as  it  may  with  Webster,  love  of  that  Union  m- 
generate  in  his  nature,  and  cherished  by  his  education,  had 
grown  with  his  growth,  and  strengthened  with  his  strength. 
He  was  elected  to  the  national  Senate  in  1827.  Early  in 
his  senatorial  career  he  saw  that  certain  causes  or  forces 
were  working  deeply  and  silently,  and  therefore  the  more 
dangerously,  to  bring  about  a  rupture  of  that  Union.  He 
also  saw  that,  if  the  structure  of  our  national  State  were 
once  demolished,  it  could  never  be  rebuilt.  He  also  saw 
that,  for  preventing  this,  two  things  were  needful :  first,  that 
the  people  needed  to  have  their  minds  rightly  and  thoroughly 
informed  in  the  nature  and  principles  of  our  Constitution  ; 
second,  that  they  needed  to  have  their  hearts  inspired  witli  a 
deep,  earnest,  heroic  passion  of  nationality,  with  an  ardent, 
self-sacrificing  devotion  to  the  Union  as  it  was. 

Thus  his  eye  took  in  the  whole  situation,  his  mighty  grasp 
of  thought  surrounded  1ahe  entire  question.  He  therefore  set 
himself,  with  all  his  powers  of  mind  and  body,  to  the  work, 
and   never   ceased  till  the  work  was  done.     For  more  than 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  233 

twenty  years,  it  was  the  main  burden  of  all  his  thought  and 
all  his  diseourse.  He  was  a  great  lawyer,  and  knew  the 
law  ;  he  was  a  great  orator,  and  could  speak  what  he  knew ; 
he  was  a  great  statesman,  with  his  mind  thoroughly  at  home 
in  the  creative  and  controlling  forces  of  social,  civil  and 
political  well-being :  therewithal  he  had  that  indispensable 
element  of  all  high  statesmanship,  a  large,  warm,  tender 
heart;  and  in  the  strength  of  this  combination  he  saw  and 
felt  that  the  preservation  of  our  national  Union  was  the  one 
thins;  needful  above  all  others  to  the  welfare  of  the  American 
people.  So,  in  due  time,  he  just  educated  and  kindled  the 
people  up  to  his  own  height,  filling  their  minds  with  his 
thoughts,  their  hearts  with  his  fervor,  their  mouths  with 
his  words.  In  doing  this,  he  won  the  title  of  the  great  Ex- 
pounder and  the  great  Defender  of  the  American  Constitu- 
tion, and  surely  no  title  wTas  ever  better  deserved.  I  think 
I  may  safely  affirm  that  this  reply  to  Hayne  produced  a 
greater  elfect  than  any  other  speech  ever  delivered  in  the 
world ;  excepting,  of  course,  those  recorded  in  the  Bible. 
Speeches  greater  in  themselves  have  indeed  been  made  : 
Webster  himself  has  several  that  are  greater ;  and  some  of 
Burke's,  I  suspect,  are  greater  than  any  of  his  ;  but  no  one 
of  Burke's,  nor  any  other  of  Webster's,  came  up  to  that  in 
effectiveness.  This  Avas  greatly  owing  to  the  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances of  the  time,  and  the  state  of  the  public  mind. 
The  tide  of  disunion  sentiment  was  then  setting  in  fast  and 
strong  ;  men's  minds  were  becoming  deeply  excited  and  agi- 
tated with  doubts  and  misgivings ;  on  all  hands,  the  worth 
and  stability  of  the  Union  were  drawn  in  question  ;  Webster 
turned  that  tide  completely,  and  it  has  gone  on  ebbing  ever 
since.  In  short,  that  speech  made,  and  marks,  the  beginning 
of  a  new  era  in  our  national  life  ;  from  that  time  forward, 
other  thoughts  and  other  feelings  took  fast  roothold  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  the  people. 


234  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 


Webster  hated  slavery ;  his  whole  life  proves  it ;  but  he 
loved  the  Union  more,  yes,  a  good  deal  more,  than  he  hated 
slavery.  He  believed  slavery  to  be  bad  ;  he  believed  the 
Union  to  be  good.  That  love  was,  indeed,  all  through  his 
public  life,  a  passion  with  him ;  nay,  more,  it  was  the  mas- 
ter-passion of  his  soul  :  it  had  penetrated  every  fibre  of  his 
being.  To  his  eye,  "Earth  had  not  any  thing  to  show  more 
fair "  than  the  august  and  beautiful  fabric  of  our  national 
State.  That  this  mighty  structure,  this  masterpiece  of  polit- 
ical architecture,  should  be  laid  in  the  dust,  was  too  much 
for  him  :  the  very  thought  of  it  literally  wrung  his  heart 
with  anguish.  His  supreme  desire  was  to  have  the  Union 
so  strengthened,  so  established  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  people,  so  bound  up,  so  interwoven  with  their  dearest 
household  ties  and  affections,  that  neither  slavery  nor  any 
other  power  should  be  able  to  prevail  against  it. 

As  for  the  speech  of  the  7th  of  March,  for  which  Webster 
was  so  bitterly,  so  atrociously  maligned,  I  have  read  that 
speech  a  great  many  times,  and  I  do  not  know  of  a  single 
word  in  it  that  I  would  have  otherwise  than  as  it  is.  I  think 
it  every  way  just  such  a  speech  as  should  have  been  made  at 
that  time  by  a  great  man  who  had  a  great  Union  to  save 
and  a  great  civil  war  to  avert.  Nor  could  AVebster  have  con- 
sistently taken  any  other  course  ;  he  Avould  have  belied  his 
whole  record,  he  would  have  been  recreant  to  the  sovereign 
aim  of  his  life,  if,  in  that  great  national  crisis,  he  had  not 
thrown  all  other  regards  to  the  winds,  and  made  the  Union 
his  paramount,  nay,  his  exclusive  concern.  So,  there  again, 
though,  to  be  sure,  with  his  great  heart  quivering  and  bleed- 
ing at  the  defection  of  friends,  and  the  cruel,  cruel  aspersions 
of  those  whom  he  had  loved  so  deeply  and  served  so  de- 
votedly,  he   stood  firm  as   a  rock  against  the  surging  and 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  235 

dashing  waves  of  unpopularity  in  his  own  cherished  home. 
Seeing  the  peril  as  he  saw  it,  he  must  needs  have  braved 
popular  clamor  as  he  braved  it,  else  he  would  have  ceased 
to  be  Daniel  Webster.  So  that  Massachusetts  went  back  on 
him,  or  froze  off  from  him,  just  at  the  very  time  when  he  was 
worthiest  of  her  love  and  honor.  But  then  we  all  ought  to 
know  that,  in  such  cases,  the  blind  or  the  blear-eyed  many 
are  pretty  sure  to  denounce  and  defame  the  one  who  sees. 
When,  in  1830  and  1833,  Webster  encountered  Nullification 
in  debate,  and  strangled  it  in  the  crushing  anaconda  folds  of 
his  logic  and  eloquence,  he  appeared  great  indeed,  and  was 
great ;  though  he  then  had  all  New  England  and  most  of  the 
entire  North  backing  him  up  and  cheering  him  on.  But  a 
great  man  never  appears  so  great  as  Avhen  he  stands  true  to 
himself  and  his  cause,  with  all  the  world  against  him.  And 
so,  to  my  thinking,  at  no  other  time  of  his  life  did  Webster's 
stubborn  greatness  of  soul,  his  "colossal  manhood,"  tower 
up  in  such  monumental  grandeur  as  when,  in  1850,  he  stood 
true  to  himself,  "  unshaken,  unseduced,  unterrined,"  with  all 
New  England  and  most  of  the  entire  North  banded  together 
to  pelt  him  off  and  hiss  him  down. 

The  fineness  of  such  metal  is  not  found 
In  Fortune's  love ;  for  then  the  bold  and  eoward, 
The  hard  and  soft,  seem  all  affined  and  kin ; 
But,  in  the  wind  and  tempest  of  her  frown, 
Distinction,  with  a  broad  and  powerful  fan, 
Puffing  at  all,  winnows  the  light  away ; 
And  what  hath  mass  and  matter,  by  itself 
Lies  rich  in  virtue  and  unmingled. 


236  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 


VII. 

COMMEMORATIVE  EXERCISES  AT  FRANKLIN, 
#  N.H.* 

Franklin,  N.H.,  Oct.  24,  1882. 

THE  one  hundredth  anniversary. of  Daniel  Webster's  birth 
has  recently  been  celebrated  at  Marshfield,  where  he 
died.  And  now  the  thirtieth  anniversary  of  his  death  is  com- 
memorated here,  where  he  was  born.  The  exercises  of  to-day 
were  as  touching  as  they  were  simple.  Mr.  Allen,  of  the 
Webster  Historical  Society,  Secretary  Cummings,  Treas- 
urer Bout  well,  and  other  officers  and  members  of  the  Society, 
came  up  from  Boston  on  the  morning  train,  and  were  hand- 
somely entertained  by  Hon.  George  W.  Nesmith,  who  is 
an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Mr.  Webster,  having  made  his 
acquaintance  in  1825.  It  has  been  a  beautiful  autumn  day 
in  Franklin,  or  Salisbury,  as  it  was  in  Mr.  Webster's  birth 
time,  and  a  goodly  company  gathered  at  the  spot  where  the 
great  statesman  was  born  cne  hundred  years  ago.  It  has 
not  been  a  celebration  in  any  sense  ;  it  has  been  a  commem- 
oration, and  the  services  were  beautiful.  The  party  pro- 
ceeded in  carriages  nearly  four  miles  from  the  Franklin 
station,  through  strikingly  beautiful  scenery,  to  the  birth- 
place. It  is  genuine  New  Hampshire  scenery,  where  every 
environment  ministers  to  strength  of  character.  The  vistas 
are  alluring,  and  every  prospect  pleases.  One  half  of  the 
house  in  which  Mr.  Webster  was  born  is  still  standing,  for- 
tunately that  half,  the  parlor,  in  which  he  actually  saw  the 
light  for  the  first  time,  and  where  the  good  dame  midwife 


♦Special  despatch  to  the  Boston  Herald  by  Mr.  Frank  II.  Buffum. 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  237 

—  the  doctor  was  five  miles  away  —  declared  that  the  lusty 
twelve-pound  boy,  with  his  great  head  and  wonderful  cav- 
ernous eyes,  was  a  remarkable  child  and  would  certainly  be 
a  great  man.  The  famous  well,  the  old  elm,  still  vigorous, 
and  all  the  points  of  interest,  were  fully  examined.  Then, 
with  uncovered  heads,  the  party  entered  the  house,  and  the 
scene  and  the  exercises  were  most  impressive. 

Hon.  Stephen  M.  Allen,  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of 
the  Society,  made  an  address  in  which  he  said,  — 

As  the  birthplace  of  the  immortal  Webster,  the  hallowed 
associations  of  this  spot  hang  in  deep  folds  about  us  to-day, 
and  for  the  moment  almost  exclude  the  sublimely  beautiful 
but  saddening  ones  at  his  tomb  at  Marshfield  a  few  days 
since.  We  are  reminded,  from  blending  the  two  occasions 
with  their  respective  teachings,  that  "  it  is  but  a  step  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave,"  and  that  "the  lives  of  great  men  prove 
that  to  learn  how  to  live  is  but  to  knoAv  how  to  die." 
Webster  learned  these  lessons  well,  only  failing  in  not  living 
more  for  himself  and  less  for  others.  From  birth  to  death 
his  life  was  a  preparation  for  a  higher  sphere,  and  as  son, 
brother  or  friend,  parent  or  husband,  Christian  statesman, 
lawyer  or  citizen,  his  life  was  a  reverent  and  chaste  one, 
vindicating  his  claim  to  a  blest  immortality  beyond  the 
grave,  whsn  he  exchanged  the  life  given  here  for  the  higher 
one  taken  on  at  his  last  mortal  resting-place.  The  sublimity 
attending  the  last  moments  of  Mr.  Webster  was  beyond 
description.  Neither  the  artist  nor  historian  has  yet  shown 
it.  From  the  first  moment  of  his  supposed  change  he  was 
resigned  and  happy,  making  his  will,  preparing  his  epitaph 
or  declaration  of  faith,  then  bidding  each  member  of  his 
family  adieu,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  and  passing  to 
the  last  evening,  when  his  example  was  worthy  of  the  high- 
est Christian  heart.     He  motioned  to  his  son  Fletcher,  and 


238  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

asked  him  to  read,  calling  for  Gray's  w  Elegy,"  which  was 
read  to  him.  He  listened  with  <n*eat  attention  and  seeming 
satisfaction.  Raising  his  eyes  upward  in  perfect  peace,  and 
then  around  upon  those  at  his  bedside,  speaking  his-  last 
words  in  an  interrogative  voice  — "  I  still  live  !  " —  then  sank 
into  the  quiet  repose  of  death, —  could  there  be  a  more  sub- 
lime picture  of  a  death-scene  than  this  ? 

We  can  hardly  realize  that  we  now  stand  in  the  room 
where  he  was  born,  any  more  than  we  could  feel  the  other 
day,  while  at  his  tomb  at  Marshfield,  that  the  enclosure  be- 
fore us  held  all  that  was  mortal  of  the  great  statesman  we 
loved  so  much.  It  seemed  then  that  the  whole  country  was 
his  resting-place,  and  that  the  people  still  held  him  in  their 
broad  national  embrace,  and  that  each*  hamlet  and  fireside 
had  an  electric  chain  of  patriotism  running  from  him  to  their 
own  special  hearthstone.  There  is  a  fitting  contrast  between 
the  two  spots  of  his  birth  and  death.  Here  rugged  Nature 
unsoftened,  though  heavily  chastened  by  the  storms  of  time, 
still  stands  out  her  natural  self,  and  is  epitomized  in  the 
mountain  before  us  as  rough  and  sturdy  as  when  the  first 
Webster  built  his  log  hut  on  this  spot,  then  the  most  north- 
erly of  the  colony.  At  Marshfield  there  is  another  primitive 
monument  still  the  same,  though  around  [all  has  been 
changed  :  the  forests  have  become  plains,  the  hills  have  been 
carpeted  with  green.  Old  Ocean,  however,  is  there  still, 
gathering  waves  from  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  rolling  them 
up  upon  the  sandy  beach  just  the  same  as  when  they  bore 
the  "  Mayflower  "  so  fortunately  to  Plymouth  Bay.  It  was  a 
noble  spirit  which  found  birth  here  in  this  rugged  mountain 
glen,  where  every  lesson  must  have  been  a  fruitful  one,  and 
a  higher  still,  after  the  struggles  of  a  fitful  life  that  took  its 
flight  at  last  on  the  shore  of  the  sea.  There  is  a  calm  sub- 
limity here  which  must  have  had  a  sublimating  effect  on  the 
child  born  here,  universally  reputed  so  good,  so  kind,  so 


The  Ride  to  Boscawen. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENMA 


loving,  so  gentle,  and  yet  with  a  mind  so  strong  and  compre- 
hensive as  to  attract  even  then  marked  attention.  The  pecu- 
liarities of  that  boyhood  have  come  down  to  us  to  respect 
and  venerate,  as  well  as  the  powers  of  the  maturer  life,  and 
we  find  in  them  the  seeds  of  the  man  fully  ripened.  With  a 
brain  and  mental  capacity  almost  too  strong  for  his  physical 
constitution,  we  see  him  inspired  with  a  thirst  for  knowledge 
beyond  his  years.  When  in  that  ride  with  his  father  to 
Boscawen,,  where  upon  the  snowy  highway  his  father  first 
told  him  of  his  intention  to  send  him  to  college,  the  news 
was  too  much  for  him,  and,  laying  his  head  upon  his  father's 
shoulder,  he  wept  like  a  child.  •  His  affection  almost 
amounted  to  adoration,  and  this  trait  lasted  through  life. 
He  was  a  loving,  obedient  child,  and  a  most  true  and  de- 
voted friend.  The  religious  training  and  naturally  devout 
character  as  a  young  man  seemed  never  forgotten  in  after 
years,  and  through  all  the  vicissitudes  which  followed  his 
marked  career  he  never  for  a  moment  forgot  his  duty  to  man 
or  to  his  God,  and  lived  and  died  a  consistent  Christian. 
Through  his  whole  career  he  was  never,  so  far  as  I  could 
ever  learn,  heard  to  utter  an  irreverent  word. 

In  the  early  evening  a  short  time  since  I  again  visited  his 
tomb.  The  little  church  to  be  dedicated  to-day,  lately  built 
by  Mrs.  Fletcher  Webster  with  the  assistance  of  a  few 
friends,  rose  upon  the  distant  shore,  where  the  waves  from 
the  Irish  coast  were  surging,  singing  a  sad  requiem  upon  the 
sandy  beach.  The  farm  hands  were  just  returning  from  the 
field  and  the  cattle  were  coming  from  the  pasture.  The 
lines  from  Gray's  "  Elegy  "  which  Mr.  Webster  desired  read 
to  him  in  his  last  hours,  came  quickly  to  mind.  There  was 
no  curfew  from  the  distant  church  tower,  or  the  simile  would 
have  been  complete.  Old  Atlantic  supplied  its  place,  and 
paraphrased  its  own  name  as  a  substitute  in  my  mind : 


240  THE    WEBSTER    CEXTENNIA 

uThe  Ocean  tolls  the  knell  of  parting  clay. 
The  lowing  herd  winds  slowly  o'er  the  lea, 
The  ploughman  homeward  plods  his  weary  way, 
And  leaves  the  world  to  darkness  and  to  me." 

The  impress  was  so  deep  and  saddening  upon  my  mind, 
that  I  turned  away  towards  the  mansion  where  the  widowed 
wife  and  childless  mother  awaited  my  return.  She  had,  one 
by  one,  followed  all  her  family  to  the  tomb,  and  now  with 
Christian  resignation  in  all  her  bereavement,  with  a  cheerful 
spirit  awaited  her  own  last  summons.  As  I  approached  the 
glass-panelled  door  from  the  veranda,  I  saw  her  sitting 
within,  by  an  open  wood  fire,  in  her  loneliness,  perhaps 
thinking  of  the  loved  ones  which  she  had  laid  away ;  and 
again  l  verse  of  the  "  Elegy  "  came  up  : 

"  For  them  no  more  the  blazing  hearth  shall  burn, 
Or  busy  housewife  ply  her  evening  care ; 
No  children  run  to  lisp  their  sire's  return. 
Or  climb  his  knees,  the  envied  kiss  to  share." 

The  scene  was  too  much  for  my  feelings  for  the  moment, 
and  I  turned  back  through  that  long  shaded  avenue  of  trees 
planted  by  Webster's  own  hand,  not  ashamed  to  drop  unbid- 
den tea~s  in  the  moonlit  pathway  that  she  could  not  see 
within  by  the  hearthside.  The  reveries  of  the  next  few 
moments  brought  up  the  lines  of  the  yearning  soul  : 

"  On  some  fond  breast  the  parting  soul  relies, 
Some  pious  drops  the  closing  eye  requires ; 
E'en  from  the  tomb  the  voice  of  Nature  cries, 
E'en  in  our  ashes  live  their  wonted  fires." 

A  half-hour  later,  while  sitting  by  the  fireside  and  listen- 
ing to  the  many  unpublished  anecdotes  of  Mr.  Webster, 
comparative  cheerfulness  took  possession  of  the  little  family 
circle,  and  a  pleasant  evening  wTas  enjoyed,  though  the  mem- 
ories of  the  past  were  too  vividly  pressing  to  stay  the  flood 
of  coming  thought. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  241 

"  Can  storied  urn  or  animated  bust 

Back  to  its  mansion  call  the  fleeting  breath? 
Can  Honor's  voice  provoke  the  silent  dust, 
Or  Flattery  soothe  the  dull,  cold  ear  of  Death?*' 

Reminiscences  of  the  distinguished  dead  are  always  profit- 
able, and  the  parallels  of  thought  and  action  in  others  are 
valuable  to  society  and  the  world.  It  is  in  this  sense  that 
the  Webster  Historical  Society  takes  life,  and  hopes  to  thrive 
in  the  future  from  its  teachings  to  the  young.  We  believe 
that  the  example  of  Webster's  life  may  have  a  good  and  last- 
ing effect  upon  future  generations,  and  therefore  unlike  the 
poet,  who  says  : 

"No  farther  seek  his  merits  to  disclose, 

Or  draw  his  frailties  from  their  dread  abode 
(There  they  alike  in  trembling  hope  repose,) 
The  bosom  of  his  Father  and  his  God." 

We  shall  study  his  life,  repeat  his  fame,  and  keep  alive  the 
memory  of  his  great  deeds  and  principles. 


The  following  are  the  remarks  of  Secretary  T.  H.  Cum- 
mings  :  — 

It  was  of  Daniel  Webster,  I  think,  they  said  that,  bar- 
ring nullification  and  slavery,  there  was  nothing  he  dis- 
liked more  than  an  apology  instead  of  a  speech.  Accord- 
ingly, lest  there  may  be  found  among  you  some  Daniel 
Websters  —  in  this  particular  —  I  will  not  begin  by  treating 
you  to  an  apology ;  and  yet  I  cannot  but  feel  how  ill  it  be- 
comes me  to  stand  up  here  in  the  presence  of  our  honorable 
President  and  these  other  distinguished  persons,  to  speak  as 
a  member  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society.  Both  he  and 
they  were  contemporaries  of  Webster  —  they  walked  and 


242  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

talked  with  the  great  statesman  in  e very-day  life,  while  I 
belong,  in  the  order  of  time,  to  the  generation  which  has 
succeeded  him.  Between  his  day  and  mine  there  is  indeed 
a  wide  gulf,  an  almost  impassable  chasm.  And  yet,  beyond 
that  gulf,  says  Mr.  Curtis,  the  majestic  figure  of  Webster 
stands  out  to  view  as  the  most  important  statesman  in  an  age 
fruitful  in  great  men.  lie  belongs,  therefore,  and  is  em- 
balmed in  the  history  of  this  country.  There  is  no  particu- 
lar a«*e  or  veneration  of  Americans  who  can  claim  him  as 
their  own  exclusive  property  and  right.  The  memory  of 
Webster  must  be  equally  shared  with  the  past,  present  and 
future  of  this  great  American  nation.  Standing,  therefore, 
as  I  do,  among  the  younger  element  of  this  Society,  with  my 
birthright  in  one  hand  and  my  rights  of  American  citizen- 
ship  in  the  other,  it  is  not  without  reason  that  I  am  here  to- 
day. I  am  come  to  venerate  in  a  grateful  spirit  the  birth- 
place of  him  the  fruits  of  whose  genius  and  the  benefits  of 
whose  great  achievement  is  my  good  fortune  now  to  enjoy. 
Furthermore,  this,  sir,  is  to  my  mind  the  full  significance 
of  this  occasion  —  this  is  the  purpose  of  this  day's  pilgrim- 
age—  and  this,  sir,  is  the  thought  that  flitted  through  my 
mind  when  I  first  caught  sight  this  morning  of  the  granite 
hills  of  New  Hampshire.  We  had  come  from  Massachusetts, 
the  land  of  Webster's  adoption,  not  out  of  an  idle  curiosity, 
but  in  a  spirit  of  grateful  reverence,  to  visit  the  spot  that 
saw  the  birth  of  Webster  to  whom  we  owe  so  much ;  to  tread 
the  ground  whereon  he  trod  and  grew  ;  to  climb  the  hills  he 
loved  to  climb ;  and  to  catch,  perchance,  some  of  the  inspi- 
ration and  courage  he  caught  from  his  native  air  for  serving 
the  cause  of  truth  and  justice  so  loyally  and  so  well. 

But  while  I  dwell  upon  the  tender  recollections  suggested 
by  this  spot,  I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  lessons  to  be  learned 
from  the  great  life  begun  here  in  so  much  simplicity,  and 
finished   in   the   halls    of  State    with  so  much  dignity  and 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  243 

grandeur.  Webster  loved  this  spot  as  he  did  his  own  life, 
and  lie  brought  his  children  here  annually,  that  they  too 
might  learn  to  love  and  cherish  it.  In  1840,  he  said  at  Sar-. 
atoga,  in  reply  to  an  imputation  cast  upon  General  Harrison, 
that  he  was  born  in  a  log  cabin,  "Gentlemen,  it  did  not 
happen  to  me  to  be  born  in  a  log  cabin,  but  my  elder  broth- 
ers and  sisters  were  born  there  and  raised  amid  the  snow- 
drifts of  New  Hampshire  at  a  period  so  early  that  when  the 
smoke  first  rose  from  its  rude  chimney  and  curled  over  the 
frozen  hills  there  was  no  similar  evidence  of  a  white  man's 
habitation  between  it  and  the  settlements  of  Canada.  Its 
remains  still  exist.  I  make  to  it  an  annual  visit.  I  carry  my 
children  to  it,  to  teach  them  the  hardships  endured  by  the 
generations  £one  before  them.  I  love  to  dwell  on  the  tender 
recollections,  the  kindred  ties,  the  early  affections  which 
mingle  with  all  I  know  of  this  primitive  family  abode.  I 
weep  to  think  that  none  of  those  who  inhabited  it  are  now 
among  the  living ;  and  if  ever  I  am  ashamed  of  it,  or  if  I 
ever  fail  in  affectionate  veneration  for  him  who  raised  and 
defended  it  against  savage  violence  and  destruction,  cher- 
ished all  the  domestic  virtues  beneath  its  roof,  and  through 
the  fire  and  blood  of  a  seven  years'  Revolution  shrank  from 
no  danger,  no  toil,  no  sacrifice  to  serve  his  country  and  raise 
his  children  to  a  condition  better  than  his  own,  may  my 
name  and  my  posterity  be  blotted  from  the  memory  of  man- 
kind." Noble  sentiment  of  a  still  more  noble  man  !  From 
this  eloquent  burst  of  feeling,  let  the  young  men  of  to-day 
learn  a  respect  for  the  past,  for  their  ancestors,  and  for  their 
teachings.  There  is  a  tendency  among  us,  alas,  too  pro- 
nounced, perhaps,  to  neglect  the  past,  and  to  prefer  novelties 
to  the  teachings  of  those  who  have  gone  before.  It  is  aptly 
expressed  in  the  homely  proverb  which  says,  "The  son 
thinks  his  father  a  fool,  but  the  father  knows  his  son  to  be 
one."     But  this,  sir,  is  unnatural •,  it  is  not  in  the  eternal 


244  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

fitness  of  things  wherein  justice  abides  ;  and,  therefore,  I 
say,  from  Webster's  living  example,  let  us  learn  to  have  a 
regard  for  the  sound  sense  of  the  past  and  a  love  for  the 
solid  wisdom  of  experience.  Like  him,  let  us,  learn  our  great 
responsibility,  not  to  the  mere  opinions,  hollow  cant  or  pre- 
vailing sentiment  of  the  times,  but  to  our  God  and  to  our 
country.  And  let  those  who  are  in  high  places  help  the 
young  men  of  to-day  to  know  this  great  man  better.  Let 
them  help  us  to  imbibe  his  fondness  for  truth  and  the  princi- 
ples of  justice  and  patriotism  eternal  and  immutable  to  the 
end,  that,  like  Webster,  we  may  learn  to  serve  the  country, 
and  the  whole  country,  and  to  hold  the  heritage  of  Liberty 
and  Union  we  have  from  him  dearer  than  life  itself. 

Judge  Nesmith  was  the  next  speaker,  and  he  gave  many 
interesting  reminiscences  of  Mr.  Webster.  His  acquaintance 
with  him,  he  said,  extended  over  a  period  of  nearly  twenty- 
five  years,  and  was  of  an  intimate  character.  Pie  refuted 
many  of  the  calumnies  so  industriously  circulated  by  Web- 
ster's enemies.  "  And  as  for  his  debts,"  continued  the  speaker, 
"he  paid  up  all  his  New  Hampshire  indebtedness,  and  the 
property  he  left  behind  him  was  more  than  sufficient  to  can- 
cel his  debts  elsewhere."  The  speaker  also  gave  incidents 
connected  with  the  nominating  convention  of  1852  at  Balti- 
more, where  he  cast  fifty  consecutive  ballots  for  Daniel  Web- 
ster, the  candidate  of  his  choice.  Speaking  of  the  dangers 
that  attended  the  Union  in  1850,  he  declared  that  Mr.  Web- 
ster's prescience  was  most  remarkable.  Mr.  Webster  said 
then  that  the  North  did  not  at  all  understand  the  secret  but 
determined  preparations  of  the  South  for  the  coming  event. 
He  continued,  WI  shall  not  live  to  see  the  attempt  to  break 
up  the  Union,  but  you  may."  And  the  event  justified  his 
predictions  only  too  well. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  245 

Treasurer  Boutwell  gave  an  interesting  anecdote  of  Mr. 
Webster,  and  Rev.  M.  T.  Runnells,  the  historian  of  Sanborn- 
ton,  speaking  of  his  attendance  at  Mr.  Webster's  funeral, 
referred  to  the  sunlight  suddenly  appearing  as  his  remains 
lay  in  state  upon  the  lawn  at  Marshfield.  "This,"  continued 
the  reverend  speaker,  "  reminds  me  of  a  similar  coincidence 
which  occurred  when  Webster  was  making  his  famous  reply 
to  Ilayne,  and  just  as  he  uttered  that  famous  sentence, 
'When  mine  eyes  shall  be  turned  for  the  last  time  to  behold 
the  sun  in  heaven,'  &c,  the  sun  burst  forth  in  all  its  radiant 
glory,  filling  the  Senate  chamber  and  bathing  the  form  of 
the  great  statesman  with  its  golden  effulgence." 

At  the  conclusion  of  these  services,  the  carriages  were  re- 
entered, and  the  tour  was  made  to  Elms  Farm,  where  Webster 
lived  so  long,  and  where,  until  1847,  he  intended  to  be  buried. 
In  the  neat  and  attractive  family  cemetery  his  father  and 
mother  lie  buried,  the  former  dying  in  1806,  aged  67,  the 
latter  in  1816,  aged  76.  This  is  one  of  the  loveliest  rural 
spots  in  New  Hampshire,  and  is  now  owned  by  the  New 
Hampshire  Orphans'  Home.  The  birthplace  of  Mr.  Web- 
ster, with  two  hundred  acres  of  the  ancestral  property,  is 
now  owned  by  Judge  Nesmith  ;  and  the  Webster  Historical 
Society,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  soon  take  steps  to  sustain  this 
estate. 


246  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL, 


yin. 

BY-LAWS  AND  ROLL  OF  MEMBERSHIP  OF  THE 
WEBSTER  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


T 


BY-LAWS. 

OBJECTS  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 

HE  objects  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  shall  be  to  col- 
lect and  publish  from  time  to  time,  so  far  as  practicable, 
such  original  and  other  interesting  matter  as  can  be  conveniently 
obtained,  illustrating  the  high  character  and  statesmanship  of 
Daniel  Webster,  and  other  distinguished  statesmen. 

To  keep  before  the  public  by  publications,  meetings  or  other- 
wise, such  matter  as  may  serve  as  proper  texts  for  political  reform 
or  improvement,  or  to  impress  or  educate  young  men  in  the  im- 
portance of  a  patriotic  service  of  the  true  interests  of  their  com- 
mon country,  under  constitutional  aims  and  principles. 

OFFICERS  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 

The  Officers  of  the  Society  shall  be  a  President,  five  Vice-Presi- 
dents, a  Recording  and  Corresponding  Secretary  and  Treasurer, 
and  an  Executive  Committee  of  five,  together  with  such  other  Com- 
mittees as  the  Board  may  designate,  to  be  chosen  annually  by  the 
members,  unless  vacancies  occur  during  the  year,  in  which  case 
they  may  be  filled  by  the  Executive  Committee,  who  shall  with 
the  Officers  constitute  a  Board  for  doing  business. 

MEMBERS. 

There  shall  be  resident  members  and  honorary  members,  the 
latter  to  be  exempt  from  admission  fee  or  assessment.  Resident 
members  shall  pay  an  admission  fee  of  three  dollars,  and  an  an- 
nual fee  thereafter  of  one  dollar. 

Admission  fee  may  be  remitted  for  cause. 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  247 


MEETINGS. 

Annual  and  other  meetings  of  the  Society  may  be  called  by  the 
President  after  proper  notice,  or  by  two  of  the  Vice-Presidents  in 
the  absence  of  the  President.  Until  a  regular  meeting  of  the  So- 
ciety is  called,  the  Executive  Committee  may  hold  elections  for 
officers  to  serve  until  such  full  meeting  is  held. 

FELLOWSHIP. 

Honorary  members  who  have  contributed  one  hundred  dollars 
to  the  permanent  fund  of  the  Society,  may  be  made  Fellows  by  a 
vote  of  the  Executive  Committee. 

COMMITTEE  OF  FINANCE. 

There  shall  be  a  Committee  of  five  on  Finance,  whose  duty  it 
shall  be  to  confer  with  and  advise  the  Treasurer  as  to  financial 
matters,  and  who  shall  take  charge  of  all  permanent  funds  of  the 
Society,  to  be  invested  safely  by  them  as  soon  as  practicable  after 
being  paid  over  to  them  by  the  Treasurer. 

HISTORIOGRAPHERS . 

There  shall  be  three  Historiographers  chosen  annually,  whose 
duty  it  shall  be  to  keep  the  necrology  of  members,  and  report  to 
the  Society. 


248 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  WEBSTER  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


Allen,  Stephen  M. 
Allen,  William. 
Alden,  Ebenezer. 
Anthony,  Henry  B. 
Allen,  Stillman  B. 
Aspinwall,  William. 
Arthur,  Chester  A. 
Andrews,  Charles  H. 
Abbott,  Josiah  G. 
Allen,  Frank  A. 
Ames,  P.  Adams. 
Atkinson,  Hervey. 
Allen,  William. 
Ames,  Oliver. 
Appleton,  Samuel. 
Armistead,  W.  Keith. 
Ames,  Fisher. 
Alexander,  James. 
Amory,  Thomas  C. 
Albee,  Sumner. 
Alden,  Amherst  A. 
Apollonio,  Nicholas  A. 
Allen,  Edward  E. 
Aspinwall,  Thomas. 
Aspinwall,  William  H. 
Allen,  Willis  B. 
Ames,  Azel,  Jr. 
Appleton,  William  S. 
Abbott,  George  H. 
Adams,  Joseph  H. 
Allen,  Frank  D. 
Abbott,  Edward  T. 
Ajnes,  Frank  M. 
Adams,  Melvin  O. 
Andrews,  Augustus. 
Aldrich,  Samuel  N. 
Andrews,  Morton  D. 
Allen,  Horace  G. 


Banks,  Nathaniel  P. 
Baker,  William  H. 


Boutwell,  Francis  M. 
Bartlett,  Samuel  C. 
Bell,  Charles  H. 
Boutwell,  George  S. 
Bartlett,  Sidney. 
Bell,  Theodore  H. 
Bonaparte,  Jerome  N". 
Burnham,  Gordon  W. 
Butler,  Peter. 
Bowman,  Selwyn  Z. 
Bremer,  John  L. 
Bennett,  Edmund  H. 
Bassett,  William  G. 
Brooks,  George  M. 
Butler,  Benjamin  F. 
Blaine,  James  G. 
Burbank,  Robert  I.     < 
Bates,  William  C. 
Browne,  Causten. 
Bayard,  Thomas  F. 
Barnard,  Daniel. 
Balch,  Joseph  W. 
Barrett,  James. 
Boynton,  Eleazer. 
Billings,  Frederick. 
Barrows,  George  B. 
Bliss,  Cornelius  X. 
Butler,  John  H. 
Brewster,  Augustus  O. 
Beal,  Leander. 
Barnard,  Henry. 
Beal,  'Joseph  S. 
Bailey,  Andrew  J. 
Blunt,  William  E, 
Brayton,  John  S. 
Batchelder,  John  M. 
Bennett,  Joseph. 
Baker,  Joseph  K. 
Beals,  Henry  M. 
Babson,  Thomas  M. 
Boynton,  E.  Moody. 
Breck,  Charles  H.  B. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 


249 


Belden,  Charles  D. 
Butler,  Horace  B. 
Barstow,  John  L. 
Brown,  Alpheus  R. 
Bradlee,  Nathaniel  J. 
Burnham,  Gershom  T. 
Brainard,  Amos  H. 
Braekett,  Jeffrey  R. 
Brown,  Seth  E. 
Bancroft,  William  A. 
Brooks,  Charles  J 
Boardman,  Waldo  E. 


Chamberlain,  Mellen. 
Chamberlain.  Joshua  C. 
Clarke,  Dorus. 
Clement,  Edward  II. 
Clapp,  William  W. 
Capen,  Nahum. 
Candler,  John  W. 
Collins,  Patrick  A. 
Choate,  Charles  F. 
Crapo,  William  W. 
Conant,  Chester  C. 
Coffin,  Abraham  B. 
Colburn,  W^aldo. 
Clarke,  John  J. 
Chadbourne,  Paul  A. 
Choate,  George  F. 
Crane,  Samuel  D. 
Crosby,  Nathan. 
Clark,  Augustus  N. 
Gushing,  Matthew  H. 
Chase,  Hezekiah  S. 
Churchill,  Joseph  M. 
Campbell,  James  H. 
Cooper,  W.  N. 
Chandler,  William  E. 
Claflin,  William. 
Converse,  Elisha  S. 
Cummings,  Thomas  II. 
Carter,  C.  Willard. 
Cilley,  Orran  G. 
Gushing,  Benjamin. 
Coe,  Henry  F. 
Clark,  John  M. 


Cogswell,  William. 
Cook,  Benjamin  F. 
Clarke,  Julius  L. 
Canterbury.  Nathan  D. 
Conness.  John. 
Chapin,  Nahum. 
Cowles,  Edward. 
Cate,  George  W. 
Colby,  John  F. 
Coit,  Henry  A. 
Connolly,  William  T. 
Cummings,  John  A. 
Crosby,  Stephen  M. 
Candage,  Rufus  G.  F. 
Cross.  William  W. 
Conant,  Luther. 
Cullen,  James  B. 
Crane,  Edward. 
Cundy,  William  H. 
Cutter,  Benjamin  F. 
Chamberlain,  Henry  P. 
Codman,  Robert. 
Crane,  Horatio  N. 
Coffin,  Charles  C. 


Deane,  Charles. 
D wight,  Thomas. 
Dawes,  Henry  L. 
Devens,  Charles. 
Dana,  Thomas. 
Dewey,  Francis  IT. 
Davis,  J.  G. 
Devereux,  Francis  B. 
Dearborn,  Charles  E. 
Doane,  Thomas. 
Deblois,  Stephen  G. 
Dewson,  Francis  A. 
Drake,  Lincoln  S. 
Drinkwater,  A.  C. 
Dacey,  Timothy  J. 
Davis,  George  L. 
Denny,  James  H. 
Dwyer,  Wm.  Whitton. 
Dana,  James. 
Dunham,  Charles  W. 
Dodge,  John  W. 


250 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 


Davis,  Joseph. 
Dickinson.  John  W. 
Dean,  Benjamin. 
Dennis,  Henry. 
Davis,  S.  M. 
Druiy,  Koger. 


Evarts,  William  M. 
Emery,  George  F. 
Edwards,  John  H. 
Emerson,  Horatio  B. 
Eastman,  Edmund  T. 
Edgerly,  Martin  V.  B. 
Endicott,  Charles. 
Ernst,  George  A.  O. 
Edmunds,  George  F. 


Fuller,  Henry  Wreld. 
Fuller,  Henry  W. 
Farns  worth,  Ezra. 
Fox,  James  A. 
Fitch,  Robert  G. 
Flatley,  P.  J. 
Farnham,  Roswell. 
French,  Jonas  H. 
Fay,  Joseph  S. 
Fisher,  Horace  K. 
Freeman,  James  G. 
Forristall,  George  W. 
Follett,  John  A. 
Field,  Walbridge  A. 
Farquhar,  David  W. 
Fuller.  Benjamin  A.  G. 
Frink,  Alden. 
Flagg,  John  G-,  Jr. 
Fitz,  Eustace  C. 
Felt,  J.  Augustus. 
French,  Asa. 
Fallon,  Joseph  D. 
Fowler,  George  R. 
Fiske,  William  O. 
Foster,  William  L. 
Fisher,  H.  G.  B. 


Green,  Samuel  A. 
Grant,  Ulysses  S. 
Greene,  Charles  G. 
Getchell,  Addison  C. 
Gridley,  G.  Fred. 
Getchell,  Jeremiah. 
Gerry,  Charles  F. 
George,  John  H. 
Grinnell,  Charles  A. 
Gallagher,  Charles  T. 
Gunn,  Levi  J. 
Gleason,  Daniel  A. 
Gordon,  William,  Jr. 
Gage,  Isaac  K. 


Harris,  Charles. 
Hall,  Andrew  J. 
Haven,  Franklin,  Jr. 
Haile,  William  H. 
Hill,  Henry  B. 
Haddock,  Charles. 
Herrick,  William  A. 
Haldeman,  Cj^rus  S. 
Hyde,  George  B. 
Hoadley,  John  C. 
Ham,  Joseph. 
Higginson,  Louis. 
Hob  art,  Francis  A. 
Hyde,  Henry  D. 
He  wins,  Edmund  H. 
Houghton,  H.  O. 
Hall,  Daniel. 
Hitchcock,  Hiram. 
Hutchins,  Stilson. 
Hatton,  Frank. 
Hazen,  Henry  A. 
Holmes,  Frank  H. 
Hardy,  William  A. 
Hall,  Harmon. 
Hathaway,  John  G. 
Heywood,  George. 
Hall,  Elisha  W. 
Harrison,  Samuel  J. 
Hitchcock,  Loranus  E. 
Hosmer,  Alfred. 
Hoar,  J.  Emery. 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 


251 


Holman,  George  II. 
Harmon,  Nathan  W 
Hicks,  Samuel  D. 
Hubbard,  Charles  T. 
Holmes,  Frank  M. 
Hildreth,  John  L. 
Hill,  Jotham  F. 
Henry,  John  J. 
Haskins.  David  G.,  Jr 
Hoxie,  Eduard  W. 
Hapgood,  Lyman  S. 
Hesseltine.  Francis  S. 
Harwood.  Herbert  J. 
Haven,  Franklin. 
Holmes,  Lucius. 
Harwood,  Joseph  A 
Hale,  Edward  E. 
Haskell,  Edwin  B. 
Hayes,  Francis  B. 
Hague,  William. 


Ingalls,  E.  Herbert. 


Kneil,  Thomas. 


Loring,  George  B. 
Lincoln,  Frederick  W 
Lewis.  Alonzo  F. 
Long,  John  D. 
Lunt,  George. 
Lord,  Otis  P. 
Lodge,  Henry  C. 
Lambert,  Thomas  K. 
Lincoln,  Robert  T. 
Ladd,  Nathaniel  W. 
Little,  Samuel. 
Ladd,  John  S. 
Locke,  Warren  E. 
Longley,  Henry  W. 
Lester,  John  E. 
Ladd,  Charles  R. 
Lockwood,  Thomas  S. 
Lewis,  Calvin  W. 
Loring,  Edward  P. 
Lambert,  Thomas  E. 
Ladd,  William  S. 


Jewell,  Marshall. 
Jordan,  William  H.  S. 
Joslin,  James  T. 
Jenks,  Thomas  L. 
Joy,  Charles  H. 
Jar  vis.  John  F. 
Johnson.  Samuel. 
Johnson,  George  W. 


King,  George  A. 
King,  William  S. 
Kidder,  Henry  P. 
Kennard,  Martin  P. 
Keith,  James  M. 
Kittredge,  Francis  W. 
Kimball,  Richard  B. 
Kittredge,  Charles  F. 
Kelley,  Webster. 
Keith,  Ziber  C. 
Kinsley.  Edward  W. 
Kingman,  Bradford. 


Miner,  Alonzo  A. 
Marston,  George. 
Morse,  Leopold. 
Motley,  Thomas. 
McKim,  John  W. 
Morton,  Marcus. 
Monroe,  George  H. 
Morgan,  Edwin  D. 
McNeill,  George  E. 
Miller,  C.  E. 
Morse,  Nathan. 
McCollom,  John  H. 
Morse,  Godfrey. 
Moore,  Ira  L. 
McFarlin,  Peleg. 
Morse,  George  W. 
Mason,  Samuel  W. 
May,  John  J. 
Merritt,  Nehemiah  T. 
Morse.  Asa  P. 
Morse,  William. 


252 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 


Martin,  Augustus  P. 
Montague,  Samuel  L. 
Maynard,  Elisha  B. 
Morris,  Bobert. 
Martin,  J.  L. 


Nelson,  Henry  W. 
Noyes,  Francis  V 
Norcross,  Araasa. 
Nesmith,  George  W. 
Noyes,  Horace. 
Norwood,  Francis. 
Noble,  Reuben. 
Nichols,  George  H. 
Nourse,  Henry  S. 


Oliver,  Henry  K. 
O'Riordon,  Patrick. 
Olmstead,  John  W. 
Otis,  Albert  B. 


Palmer,  Albert, 
Pillsbury,  A.  E. 
Porter,  Noah. 
Pulsif  er,  R.  M. 
Palmer,  Benjamin  P. 
Poore,  Ben.  Perley. 
Pierce,  Henry  L. 
Parmenter,  William  E. 
Patterson,  J.  W. 
Pingree,  Samuel  E. 
Perry,  Arthur  L. 
Phillips,  Fred  J. 
Pettee,  Benjamin. 
Parker,  Horatio  G. 
Phillipps,  Alfred. 
Perkins,  Frank  H. 
Peabody,  Dean. 
Parker,  Henry  L. 
Pettengill,  John  W. 
Pratt,  Charles  E. 
Pope.  Charles. 
Preston,  James  W. 
Prince,  C.  Albert. 


Pitman,  Benjamin. 
Proctor,  Thomas  E. 
Powers,  Charles  E. 
Parsons.  Thomas. 
Perry.  Francis  A. 
Parker,  Charles  W. 
Plympton,  N.  A. 
Perkins,  David. 
Prang,  Louis. 
Pearson,  George  W. 
Pike,  John  N. 
Plunkett,  William  C. 
Paine,  Robert  Treat,  Jr. 
Pearson,  Thomas. 
Pope,  Charles  G. 
Paige,  John  C. 
Pratt,  Edward  E. 
Puffer,  Loring  W. 
Peabody,  Francis,  Jr. 
Powers,  Charles. 
Paul,  Joseph  F. 
Pollard,  M.  S.  P. 
Potter,  Burton  W. 
Pierce,  Samuel  B. 
Parks,  Clarence  A. 


Quincy,  Josiah. 


Richardson,  George  C. 
Russell,  Chas.  Theodore. 
Russell,  Thomas. 
Rice,  Alexander  H. 
Russell,  William  A. 
Robinson,  George  D. 
Rice,  William  W. 
Rolfe,  Henry  P. 
Rollins,  E.  A. 
Rollins,  Daniel  G. 
Rodocanachi,  John  M. 
Ranney,  Ambrose  A. 
Russell,  Alfred. 
Rowe,  George  H.  M. 
Russell,  John  E. 
Russell,  Samuel  H. 
Reynolds,  Rice  M. 


THE  WEBSTEIi   CENTENNIAL. 


253 


Riley,  Thomas. 
Russell,  Daniel  Webster. 
Russell,  Daniel. 
Rollins.  Charles. 
Rollins,  James  W. 
Ritehie,  Edward  8. 
Robinson,  Henry  W. 
Roberts,  James  A. 
Richardson.  William  A. 
Runnels,  Moses  T. 


Seelye,  Julius  H. 
Sargent,  Horace  B. 
Stockbridge,  Levi. 
Stearns,  William  B. 
Slafter,  Edmund  F. 
Stickney,  J.  Henry. 
Shurtleff,  William  S. 
Safford,  Nathaniel  F. 
Swift,  John  L. 
Standish,  Miles. 
Smalley,  Bradley  B. 
Smith,  George  O. 
Simmons,  George  A. 
Spalding.  Edward. 
Smith,  John  Edwin. 
Sargent,  J.  E. 
Slafter,  Carlos. 
Sanborn,  Edwin  D. 
Stevens.  Edward  G. 
Sawyer,  Joseph. 
Swan,  William  E.  C. 
Sawyer,  Edward. 
Sturgis,  John  H. 
Salisbury,  Daniel  W. 
Smith,  Baxter  P. 
Smyth,  Frederick. 
Smith,  Wellington. 
Stockwell,  James  W. 
Sullivan,  John  C. 
Skillings,  David  N.,  Jr 
Swallow,  Calvin. 
Stanley,  Clinton  W. 
Swift,  Lindsay. 
Slade,  Lucius. 
Sumner,  Charles  W. 


Story,  Isaac. 
Standish,  L.  Miles. 
Sanger,  Chester  F. 
Savage,  Thomas. 
Story,  Augustus. 
Shepard,  Luther  E. 
Saltonstall,  Leverett. 
Smith,  James. 
Stevens,  Charles  W. 
Stevens,  George. 
Sears,  Philip  H. 
Sawyer,  Timothy  T. 
Smith,  Elizur. 
Saville,  Leonard  A. 
Smith,  Charles. 
Smith,  George  E. 
Sanford,  Baalis. 


Tobey,  Edward  S. 
Talbot,  Thomas. 
Taylor,  Charles  H. 
Thompson.  Francis. 
Thompson,  Ai  B. 
Temple,  Thomas  F. 
Thornton,  Charles  C.  G. 
Thayer,  Edward  F. 
Townsend,  Luther  T. 
Tobey,  James  W. 
Tompkins,  Dexter  A. 
Tobey,  Edward  S.,  Jr. 
Tarbox,  John  K. 
Towle,  Henry  C. 
Taylor.  Simeon  P. 
Thompson,  Abijah. 
Trask,  William  Blake. 
Tyler,  Henry  M. 
Tarbox,  Increase  N. 
Tuttle,  Julius  H. 


Upham,  J.  Baxter. 


Viaux,  Frederick  H. 
Veazy,  Wheelock  S. 


254 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 


Winsor,  Justin. 
White,  Charles  Austin. 
White,  Charles  A. 
Worthington,  Roland. 
Walker,  Francis  A. 
Wilder,  Marshall  P. 
Webster,  Ashburton. 
Webster.  Caroline  S. 
Warren.  G.  Washington. 
Wood,  William  B. 
Wood,  William  H. 
Wheelock,  Peter  S. 
Walker,  Joseph  B. 
Warren,  Lucius  H. 
Woods,  Henry  F. 
Webster.  Nathaniel  S. 
Welling,  James  C. 
Wyman,  Edward. 
Wilkinson,  Win.  C. 
Winkley,  Daniel. 
Wood,  Horatio. 
Webster,  Charles  W. 
Webber,  Charles  F. 
Williams,  G.  Fred. 
Warren,  George  W. 
Winslow,  William  C. 
Webber,  Cushing. 
Wright,  William  Burnett. 
Wellman,  J.  W. 
Wightman,  Joseph  M. 
Wright,  Isaac  H. 
Waldo,  C.  Sidney. 
Wrarren,  Samuel  D. 


Whitney,  Henry  M. 
Warren,  Joseph  H. 
Warren,  Cyrus  M. 
Wright,  Carroll  D. 
Wood,  Rufus  D. 
Wallace,  Rodney. 
Whitney,  Milton  B. 
Wyman,  Morrill. 
Willis,  George  D. 
Waldo.  John  A. 
Whipple,  John  Jay. 
Warren,  Nathan. 
Woodworth,  Albert  C. 
Weston,  Byron. 
White,  Joseph. 
Wyman,  Stanley  C. 
Whipple,  George  A. 
Wright.  William  J. 
Wright,  George  W. 
Whitcomb,  B.  D. 
Williams,  George  F. 
White.  Hubbard  Winslow. 
Wilson,  Charles  B. 
Watson,  Robert  S. 
Wliiton,  David. 
Wales,  Nathaniel. 
Warren,  G.  F. 
Williams,  John  Howard. 
Williams,  Fred  H. 
Wells,  William. 
Warren,  Moses  C. 

Yale,  Rufus  M. 


Clark,  Isaiah  R. 
Hunnewell,  Francis. 
Hudson,  Henry  N. 


Parker.  Harvey  D. 
WTakeneld,  Cyrus. 
Willson,  E.  B. 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  255 

LETTERS  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 

The  following  letters  and  extracts  from  letters,  received  in 
response  to  notification  of  membership,  are  quoted  to  show 
the  high  esteem  in  which  the  objects  of  the  Society  are 
held :  — 

Executive  Mansion. 
Washington,  August  5, 1882. 

My  dear  sir,  —  The  President  has  received  your  letter  of  the 
3d  instant,  and  desires  me  to  express  his  appreciation  of  the  com- 
pliment of  the  proposed  action  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society 
in  electing  him  an  honorary  member. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Fred.  J.  Phillips, 
Stephen  M.  Allen,  Esq.,  Private  Secretary. 

President,  &c, 

Boston,  Mass. 

[From  Governor  Chas.  PI.  Bell,  of  New  Hampshire.] 

Please  to  make  my  warmest  acknowledgment  to  the  Committee 
for  the  honor  they  do  me,  and  inform  them  that  if  admitted  I  shall 
esteem  it  a  high  distinction  to  be  connected  with  the  Society. 

[From  Rev.  N.  Porter,  President  of  Yale  College.] 
I  shall  be  happy  to  do  anything  in  my  power  which  will  bring 
honor  to  the  name  and  memory  of  the  distinguished  statesman  and 
orator  whom  all  Americans  should  be  taught  to  venerate. 

Augusta,  Me.,  Sept.  2G,  1882. 

Dear  sir,  —  I  beg  to  present  my  thanks  for  the  aonor  conferred 

upon  me  in  my  election  as  an  honorary  member  of  the  Webster 

Historical  Society.     I  yield  to  no  one  in  admiration  of  that  great 

statesman,  and  in  appreciation  of  the  inestimable  work  he  did  for 

the  union  of  the  States. 

Very  respectfully, 

Stephen  M.  Allen,  Esq.,  James  G.  Blaine. 

President,  &c. 


256  THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

[From  Chas.  Austin  White.] 
I  am  honored  by  your  announcement  that  I  have  been  nominated 
for  admission  as  an  honorary  member  of  the  Webster  Historical 
Society,  and  I  desire  to  express  the  satisfaction  which  it  will  give 
me,  as  one  who  enjoyed  a  share  of  Mr.  Webster's  friendship  in  his 
lifetime,  who  was  present  in  his  house  at  Marshfield  on  the  morn- 
ing of  his  death,  and  who  will  continue  to  revere  his  memory  while 
life  lasts,  to  have  this  nomination  confirmed.  If  the  state  of  my 
health  permits,  I  shall  hope  to  be  present  at  the  coming  celebration 
at  Marshfield,  to  mark,  however  feebty,  by  my  presence,  my 
veneration  for  one  whose  patriotic  sentiments  and  deeds  will  live 
forever  in  the  annals  of  his  country  and  the  world. 

[From  Hon.  Levi  Stockbridge.] 
I  assure  you  that  I  highly  appreciate  the  work  your  organiza- 
tion is  performing,  and  should  be  pleased  with  the  right  of  actual 
membership. 

[From  Hon.  George  W.  Warren,  of  New  York.] 
I  have  been  a  Webster  man  since  I  was  thirteen  years  old,  hear- 
ing him  then  at  Quincy  Hall,  my  first  caucus  attendance.  From 
that  time  I  have  never  missed  improving  eveiy  possible  oppor- 
tunity of  hearing  him.  I  was  privileged  with  a  personal  acquaint- 
ance with  him,  heard  his  7th  of  March  speech  at  Washington, 
1850  —  next  in  importance  to  his  reply  to  Hayne,  his  most  pat- 
riotic effort,  if  it  does  not  even  stand  above  that  in  its  risking  his 
own  sacrifice.  As  President  of  the  Webster  Club  of  1852,  at  the 
head  of  a  committee,  I  had  three  interviews  with  him  to  obtain  his 
consent  to  a  call  for  an  u  Independent  Convention  of  Webster 
men  at  Philadelphia,  without  distinction  of  party,"  believing,  as 
we  did  early,  that  the  "  Scott  delegates"  would  have  a  majority 
in  the  Whig  Convention.  Those  interviews  were  interesting,  and 
though  our  plans  were  negatived  by  him,  we  loved  the  man  the 
more  for  the  way  and  the  why  he  did  it.  A  member  of  the  city 
government,  I  was  present  at  his  grand  and  solemn  funeral ;  re- 
turning in  the  same  carriage  with  Franklin  Pierce,  he  told  me  that 
"Webster's  nomination  by  the  Whigs  was  the  only  one  he  had 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  257 

feared.     The  Whig  managers  never  realized  the  immense  popu- 
larity of  Webster  with  the  people." 

[From  Gen.  U.  S.  Grant.] 
In  reply  I  would  say  that  it  would  afford  me  great  pleasure  to 
become  a  member  of  your  Society. 

[From  Hon.  Thomas  Russell.] 
I  acknowledge  with  pleasure  your  favor  of  this  date,  and  should 
be  happy  to  accept  the  honor  of  admission  to  the  Webster  Histor- 
ical Society  as  proposed. 

[From  Rev.  Dr.  A.  A.  Miner.] 
I  should  certainly  deem  it  a  high  honor  to  be  admitted  a  member 
of  your  Society. 

[From  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder,  President  New  England  Historic, 
Genealogical  Society.] 

I  shall  feel  honored  by  being  made  a  member  of  the  Webster 
Historical  Society. 

[From  Hon.  Marshall  Jewell,  ex-Governor  of  Connecticut.] 
Many  thanks  for  your  polite  communication  of  the  2d  inst.     I 
am  a  born  Whig  and  Webster  man,  and  am  therefore  not  a  little 
pleased  at  the  prospect  of  being  a  member  of  the  Webster  Histori- 
cal Society. 

The  publication  of  everything  pertaining  to  Mr.  Webster  can- 
not fail  to  be  beneficial  to  the  present  generation. 

[From  General  Horace  Binney  Sargent,  President  Standish  Monument 

Association.] 

I  accept  with  great  pleasure  the  honor  that  your  Society  confers 
by  nomination,  and  proposes  to  confirm  ;  and  I  venture  to  express 
a  hope  that  no  one  more  reverently  than  myself  has  made  a  care- 
ful study  of  this  opinion  of  the  very  great  American  Whom  your 
Society  is  instituted  to  honor.  His  works  are  an  armory  of  every 
weapon  that  patriotism  can  use  for  loyalty  to  the  Republic. 


258  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

[From  Ex-Gov.  Alexander  H.  Rice.] 
I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  favor  of  the  2d  inst., 
apprising  me  of  the  fact  of  my  nomination  by  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee as  an  honorary  member  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society ; 
for  which  distinguished  recognition,  I  return  my  thanks,  and  will 
accept  such  membership  if  conferred. 

[From  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy.] 
I  feel  highly  honored  by  my  nomination  as  an  honorary  member 
of  your  Society,  and  if  confirmed  will  accept  with  great  pleasure. 

[From  Hon.  Mellen  Chamberlain.] 

I  find  your  official  communication  informing  me  that  I  have  been 
nominated  an  honorary  member  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society. 

For  this  nomination  I  am  obliged,  and  if  elected,  I  shall  esteem 
it  a  great  honor  to  be  connected  with  a  society  whose  objects  are 
specially  interesting  to  me. 

[From  Hon.  II.  B.  Anthony.] 
I  have  yours  of  the  2d,  informing  me  of  my  nomination  as  an 
honorary  member  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  an  honor 
which  gives  me  much  gratification. 

[From  Hon.  Nahum  Capen.] 
It  was  my  great  privilege  to  become  acquainted  with  Mr.  Web- 
ster in  1826,  and   my  intercourse  with  him  during  the  balance  of 
his  life,  from  that  period,  was  most  agreeable  and  instructive. 

[From  Ex-Gov.  Thomas  Talbot.] 
Yours  notifying  me  that  I  have  been  nominated  as  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  is  received.     I  shall 
feel  honored  by  such  a  membership. 

[From  Hon.  Sidney  Bartlett.] 
All  efforts  to  perpetuate  the  feme   and  principles  of  one  whom 
I  knew  so  long  and   honored  so  much,   have  my   most    earnest 
sympathy. 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  259 

[From  Mr.  Justice  Otis  P.  Lord.] 
It  is  always  gratifying  to  me  to  be  associated  with  any  whose 
purpose  is  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  Daniel  Webster,  and  to 
present,  "  for  the  instruction  of  the  rising  generation  of  young 
men,"  the  principles  which  he  advocated,  and  the  many  illustrious 
acts  and  incidents  "  pertaining  to  his  life  and  services." 

[From  Thomas  Motley,  Esq.] 
I  enjoj'ed  the  friendship  of  Mr.  Webster  for  many  years,  and 
considered  it  one  of  the  great  privileges  of  my  life.     I  need  hardly 
say  that  the  confirmation  of  my  membership  will  be  a  great  pleas- 
ure to  me. 

[From  Hon.  G.  Washington  Warren.] 
It  will  give  me  great  pleasure  to  become  an  honorary  member 
of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  as  indicated  by  your  letter  this 
day  received.  Having  had  an  intimate  and  somewhat  confidential 
acquaintance  with  Mr.  Webster,  I  will  gladly  do  anything  in  my 
power  to  promote  the  stated  objects  of  the  Society. 

[From  Hon.  Samuel  A.  Green,  Mayor  of  Boston.] 
I  appreciate  highly  the  compliment"  your  Society  has  paid  me  in 
nominating  me  for  admission  as  one  of  its  honorary  members.     It 
gives  me  great  pleasure  to  signify  my  willingness,  if  subsequently 
confirmed,  to  avail  myself  of  its  advantages. 

[From  Francis  A.  Walker,  Esq.,  President  Institute  of  Technology.] 
It  would  afford  me  peculiar  gratification  to  be  elected  to  the 

membership   of  the   Webster   Historical   Society,  for   which   the 

Executive  Committee  have  nominated  me. 

[From  Gen.  Joshua  L.  Chamberlain,  ex-Governor  of  Maine.] 
I  may  not  be  able  to  render  much  service,  but  if  the  Committee 

will  take  me  as  I  am,  I  shall  be  glad  to  accept. 

Great   men   are   fountains  and   sources  from  which  we   ought 

always  to  draw  inspiration  and  strength,  and  I  cordially  approve 

your  movement  in  this  matter. 


260  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL. 

[From  Hon.  Ben.  Perley  Poore.] 

It  was  my  privilege  to  enjoy  Mr.  Webster's  friendship  during 
the  later  years  of  his  life,  and  I  consider  it  a  high  honor  to  be  as- 
sociated with  any  organization  of  respectable  gentlemen  for  honor- 
ing his  memory. 

[From  Hon.  Chester  C.  Conant.] 

As  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  as  an  alumnus  of  Dartmouth, 
and  as  a  descendant  of  the  old  Puritan  founder  of  Salem,  Roger 
Conant,  I  claim  a  special  interest  in  the  good  name  and  enduring 
fame  of  the  "  godlike  Daniel." 

[From  Rev.  S.  C.  Bartlett,  President  of  Dartmouth  College.] 

I  have  received  your  letter  announcing  my  nomination  as  an 
honorary  member  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  with  assur- 
ance of  "  confirmation,  if  agreeable  to  my  expressed  wish." 

I  should  esteem  it  a  privilege  to  become  a  member,  and  tender 
my  thanks  for  the  compliment. 

[From  Hon.  F.  W.  Lincoln.] 

Sympathizing  most  fully  in  the  patriotic  efforts  to  keep  Web- 
ster's memory  green,  and  believing  that  the  war  for  the  Union  was 
fought  in  a  great  measure  by  the  ammunition  which  was  furnished 
by  his  great  speeches. 

[From  Hon.  Henry  Weld  Fuller.] 

Nothing  could  be  more  agreeable  to  my  wishes  than  the  per- 
petuation of  the  memory  and  lessons  of  our  greatest  of  statesmen, 
Daniel  Webster. 

His  ponderous  intellect  and  prophetic  vision,  his  great  heart 
and  wonderful  magnetism,  are  acknowledged  by  all ;  but  they  who 
knew  him  in  his  youth,  and  who  had  his  friendship  in  college  da}Ts, 
spoke  of  him  with  an  admiration  and  affection  altogether  beyond 
our  own. 

I  have  heard  my  father  extol  him,  and  hold  him  up  to  us  as  one 
who  never  betrayed  a  trust  or  forgot  a  friend. 


THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  20 1 

[From  Ex-Gov.  Geo.  S.  Boutwell.] 
It  will  be  a  pleasure  to  me  to  be  recognized  as   an  honorary 
member  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  and  with  thanks  for 
the  consideration  accorded  me. 

[From  Eev.  Ebenezer  Alden.] 
Please  receive  my  acknowledgment  of  your  personal  kindness 
as  President  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  and  express  to  the 
Society  my  thanks  for  the  honor  conferred  upon  me  in  my  election 
as  an  honorary  member  of  that  body. 

[From  Hon.  Geo.  Marston,  Attorney  General  of  Massachusetts.] 
I  accept  the  honor,  with  a  sense  of  sincere  trust  that  your  Society 
may  do  much  to  make  more  clear  to  the  American  people  how 
much  they  owe  to  the  transcendent  ability  and  patriotism  of  Daniel 
Webster. 

[From  Hon.  Geo.  B.  Loring.] 
I  shall  be  most  happy  to  be  admitted  as  an  honorary  member 
of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  and  am  much  obliged  to  you 
for  considering  my  name  in  this  connection. 

[From  Rev.  Dorus  Clarke.] 
I  accept  with  pleasure  the  honor  which  the  Executive  Committee 
propose  to  confer  upon  me,  and  will  gladly  do  anything  in  my 
power  to  perpetuate  the  fame  of  Mr.  Webster,  who  belongs  to  the 
brightest  constellation  of  distinguished  men  who  have  adorned 
the  history  of  our  country. 

[From  Hon.  Franklin  Haven,  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Mr. Webster.] 
The  avowed  objects  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  are  pat- 
riotic and  commendable.     The  name  by  which  the  Society  is  isd- 
tinguished  is  precious  in  the  memory  of  Americans,  and  consecrated 
in  the  annals  of  the  country. 

[From  Hon.  Joseph  M.  Wightman.] 
As  long  as  he  lived,  Daniel  Webster  was  the  guide  of  my  polit- 
ical life,  and  I  have  always  revered  his  memory.     In  my  heart  he 
"still  lives." 


262  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

[From  Prof.  E.  D.  Sanborn.] 
I  shall  esteem  it  an  honor  to  be  associated  with  the  "Webster 
Historical  Society  in  the  duties  they  have  prescribed  for  themselves, 
if  they  should  confirm  my  election. 

[From  G.  Bradley  Barrows,  Esq.] 
I  accept  the  nomination  with  pleasure,  as  I  am  in  hearty  sym- 
pathy with  the  objects  of  your  Society.     I  shall  endeavor  hereafter 
to  add  to  your  collection  some  facts  relating  to  Mr.#Webster's 
former  residence  in  this  town. 

[From  Hon.  Samuel  E.  Pingree.] 
I  would  say  that  the  confirmation  of  the  nomination  by  your 
honorable  board  would  be  very  acceptable  to  me,  as  I  regard  the 
objects  for  which  that  Society  is  constituted  something  alike  honor- 
able and  dutiful  on  our  part. 

[From  J.  W.  Preston,  Esq.] 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  I  shall  esteem  it  an  honor  and 
privilege  to  be  a  member  of  a  society  that  has  for  its  object  the 
collection  and  publication  of  matter  pertaining  to  the  life  and 
services  of  Daniel  Webster,  and  other  eminent  men  who  have 
adorned  the  history  of  our  country  and  illustrated  its  institutions. 
There  can  be  no  better  way,  it  would  seem,  of  inculcating  the 
great  principles  which  form  the  basis  of  our  government,  and  in- 
spiring the  coming  generations  of  our  people  with  a  genuine  and 
intelligent  love  for  them,  than  the  method  proposed  by  the  Webster 
Historical  Society. 

[From  Kev.  A.  L.  Perry.] 
As  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  as  having  often  seen  and  heard 
Mr.  Webster  in  my  boyhood  at  Dartmouth  College  and  elsewhere, 
as  being  locally  and  historically  interested  in  the  Battle  of  Ben- 
nington, in  which  Mr.  Webster's  father  was  a  captain,  as  a  long- 
time student  and  teacher  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
of  which  he  was  a  master,  and  as  a  believer  in  the  large  utility  of 
keeping  ever  fresh  the  precepts  and  example  of  such  a  patriotic 
citizen  and  consummate  orator  as  Mr.  Webster  was,  I  am  thank- 


THE  WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  263 

ful  for  my  election  as  an  honorary  member  of  the  Webster  His- 
torical Society,  and  will  do  all  I  can  to  further  its  objects. 

[From  R.  M.  Yale,  Esq.] 
I  am  one  of  the  old  admirers  of  Daniel  Webster  —  one  who 
voted  for  him  after  he  was  dead,  feeling  that  his  dead  body  was 
worth  more  than  an}-  live  one  that  was  in  the  field  against  him. 

[From  Rev.  Moses  T.  Runnels.] 
I  thank  you  for  this  undeserved  honor,  would  signify  my  accep- 
tance, and  would  be  glad  to  co-operate  with  you  in  my  feeble  way 
for  the  carrying  out  of  the  design  of  the  Webster  Historical 
Society.  Let  the  fame  and  the  influence  of  the  great  statesman 
be  perpetuated  as  widely  as  possible. 

[From  Hon.  Peter  S.  Wheeloek.] 
I  assure  you  that  I  shall  feel  highly  honored  if  I  am  made  a 
member  of  that  Society.     Daniel  Webster  was  always  greatly  ad- 
mired by  me  as  a  man,  jurist  and  statesman.     I  sincerely  hope  my 
nomination  will  be  confirmed. 

[From  X.  S.  Webster,  Esq.,  of  Boscawren,  N.H.] 
Many  things    connected  wTith  the    first   professional    efforts  of 
Daniel  Webster  in  this  quiet  town,  his  intimate  relations  with  my 
father's  family,  his  elastic  step,  and  pleasant  voice,  are  among  my 
earliest  recollections.     His  friendship  was  firm  and  life-long. 

[From  Henry  X.  Hudson,  Esq.] 
Among  all  the  public  men  of  our  country  during  my  time,  Daniel 
Webster  is  the  supreme  object  of  my  regard  and  reverence  ;  and 
nothing  pertaining  to  this  world  lies  nearer  my  heart  than  that  the 
name  and  memory  of  him  may  be  duly  honored  and  cherished  as 
our  great  teacher  and  apostle  of  American  citizenship. 

[From  Gen.  John  L.  Swift.] 
It  would  be  very  gratifying  to  me  to  become  a  member  of  the 
Webster  Historical  Society,  in  honor  of  the  great  citizen  whose 
fame  increases  as  time  enlarges  the  vision  by  which  we  view  the 
magnitude  of  his  ability  and  service  to  the  country. 


264  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

[From  Henry  Dennis,  Esq.] 

From  early  boyhood,  or  at  least  as  soon  as  I  was  old  enough  to 
read  and  in  some  degree  appreciate  the  published  speeehes  of  Mr. 
Webster,  I  eagerly  sought  them  for  study  and  information,  a  foun- 
tain of  knowledge,  from  which  the  humble,  like  myself,  could  drink 
in  some  degree  the  truths  sought  to  be  inculcated  by  the  great  ora- 
tor ;  indeed,  so  strong  an  impression  was  made  upon  my  mind  by 
his  allusion  to  the  slave  trade  in  his  Plymouth  oration  of  1820, 
that  on  arriving  at  my  majority  in  1848  my  first  vote  was  cast  for 
the  liberty  party  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  It  was  never  my 
good  fortune  to  hear  Mr.  Webster  speak  in  public  but  once  (and 
then  only  for  a  few  moments),  and  this  at  Plymouth,  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  Old  Colony  Railroad  in  1845.  The  appearance  of  Mr. 
Webster  at  that  time  is  still  fresh  in  my  mind,  noble  and  godlike. 

[From  II.  Xoyes.  Esq.] 
I  do  not  know  the  full  extent  to  which  your  wishes  may  extend 
in  collecting  and  publishing  incidents,  anecdotes  and  letters  relat- 
ing to  Mr.  Webster.  I  had  many  private  letters  of  his,  but  by 
entreaty  of  friends  the  number  has  been  much  reduced  ;  yet  some 
remain  which  it  would  be  no  violation  of  friendship,  now  that  he  is 
gone,  to  publish.  Living  very  near  him  at  Elms  Farm,  and  fre- 
quently attending  to  little  matters  for  him,  I  may  be  able  to  give 
some  incidents  of  his  private  life  not  heretofore  published ;  and 
should  confirmation  follow  my  nomination  as  a  member  of  your 
Society,  I  shall  ever  feel  it  a  high  privilege  to  be  thus  associated. 

[From  Rev.  William  Hague.] 
I  highly  appreciate  the  aims  and  the  spirit  of  the  Webster  His- 
torical Society,  and  the  honor  of  a  recognized  connection  with  it ; 
believing  in  its  great  possibilities  as  an  educational  power. 

[From  Hon.  Henry  P.  Kolfe.] 

I  believe  Daniel  Webster  to  be  the  most  distinguished  American, 

living  or  dead  ;  but  because  he  was  a  neighbor  and  schoolmate  of 

my  mother,  and  was  baptized  by  my  grandfather,  Rev.  Jonathan 

Searle    aid   was    a   member   of  his    church,   as   was   his   father 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  265 

before  him,  I  may  be  the  only  person  living  whose  parent  attended 
the  district  school  with  Daniel  Webster.  I  am  in  feeble  health  at 
the  present  time,  but  hope  to  be  able  to  attend  the  Centennial 
Celebration  at  Marshfield  on  the  12th  inst.  I  was  present  in  1852 
as  a  representative  of  Concord,  N.H.,  to  attend  the  funeral  obse- 
quies, when  Mr.  Ilillard  delivered  his  eulogy  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and 
when  Governor  Boutwell  in  his  reception  speech  to  us  from  New 
Hampshire  said,  ;i  New  Hampshire  has  furnished  no  other  such 
son,  and  Massachusetts  no  other  such  statesman,  as  Daniel 
Webster." 

[From  Prof.  J.  C.  Welling,  President  of  Columbia  College.] 
I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  reception  of  your  com- 
munication under  date  of  the  25th  inst.,  informing  me  that  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  have 
nominated  me  for  admission  as  an  honorary  member  of  that 
Association. 

As  alike  by  my  political  training  and  my  political  convictions 
I  belong  to  those  who  hold  the  name  of  Daniel  Webster  a  highest 
honor,  I  beg  leave  to  say  that  it  will  give  me  pleasure  to  accept 
the  designation  with  which  I  have  been  honored,  if  it  shall  be  con- 
firmed by  your  board.  A  serious  illness  has  prevented  the  earlier 
acknowledgment  of  your  communication. 

[From  James  T.  Joslin.  Esq.] 
Please  accept  my  thanks  for  this  unsolicited,  not  to  say  un- 
merited, recognition  of  the  estimation  in  which  I  was  early  taught 
to  regard  the  name  and  character  of  Webster.  A  somewhat  care- 
ful study  of  Webster's  matchless  literary  works  in  maturer  life 
has  ripened  a  youthful  estimate  of  his  greatness  into  a  profound 
veneration  for  the  genius  and  exalted  abilities  of  the  historic  states- 
man of  America.  I  shall  deem  it  an  honor  to  be  enrolled  as  an 
honorary  member  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society. 

[From  Eev.  Luther  Farnham.] 
I  have  received  your  cordial  invitation  to  attend  the  Centen- 
nial Celebration  of  the  year  of  the  birth  of  Daniel  Webster  at 


266  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

Marshfield,  on  Thursday  next,  and  it  gives  me  much  pleasure  to 
accept  of  the  invitation  which  was  entirely  unexpected,  and  which 
has  been  so  politely  extended.  As  early  as  last  winter,  I  called 
on  several  distinguished  friends  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  suggested 
the  special  fitness  of  Marshfield  as  the  place  for  just  such  a  cele- 
bration, and  October  as  the  month  for  it,  since  it  was  the  home 
that  the  great  statesman  most  loved,  and  since  he  was  buried 
there  by  the  sea  just  a  generation  ago.  I  am  very  glad,  therefore, 
as  no  other  society  was  ready  to  enter  upon  the  work,  that  the 
Webster  Historical  Society  has  so  enthusiastically  engaged  in 
it.  More  than  thirty  years  ago,  just  as  I  entered  upon  the  work 
of  the  Christian  ministiy,  I  was  for  a  considerable  time  the  min- 
ister of  the  First  Congregational  Church  in  Marshfield,  and  Mr. 
Webster  was  by  far  my  most  distinguished  parishioner,  and  in 
many  respects  the  best.  His  sons,  Col.  Fletcher  Webster  and 
Major  Edward  Webster,  were  also  valued  members  of  the  con- 
gregation. 

[From  Henry  Barnard,  Esq.] 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  have  read,  in  the  formation  period 
of  my  taste  and  opinions,  his  grand  discourses  at  Plymouth 
(1820),  at  Bunker  Hill  (1825)  and  at  Faneuil  Hall  (1826)  ;  and 
to  have  listened  to  his  Washington  Centennial  address  (1833),  his 
elaborate  exposition  of  the  Constitution  (in  1833)  in  his  own  series 
of  resolutions  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  in  antagonism  to 
those  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  and  to  mairy  utterances  from  that  time 
on,  from  the  political  platform  and  in  friendly  intercourse  ;  and  I 
am  happy  and  proud  to  owe  my  inspiration  and  standard  of  public 
duty,  of  appreciation  of  the  singular  greatness  of  George  Wash- 
ington, of  the  national  character  of  our  Constitution,  to  his  teach- 
ing, written  and  oral.  This  teaching,  in  my  judgment,  fixed 
the  Union  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people,  and  carried  us 
triumphantly  through  the  war  of  secession. 

[From  Justin  Winsor,  Esq.] 
I  appreciate  the  honor  of  the  election,  and  shall  be  glad  to  be 
reckoned  one  of  the  circle  thus  associated  to  do  honor  to  the  fame 
and  memory  of  Webster. 


THE  WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  267 

[From  Cornelius  X.  Bliss,  Esq.] 
My  early  political  education  in  old  Boston  was  that  of  a 
Webster  Whig ;  and  it  is  gratifying  to  see  that  the  principles 
instilled  into  our  }'oung  minds  years  ago  are  to-day  recognized 
as  true  and  just.  As  Senator  Dawes  well  said,  "When  right,  one 
can  afford  to  wait  even  thirt}'  years  for  justification." 

[From  lion.  James  Barrett.] 
My  knowledge  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  my  estimate  of  him  as  a 
man,  a  citizen,  a  jurist,  a  statesman,  render  any  token  of  apprecia- 
tion of  him  interesting  to  me  —  and  especially  such  a  token  as  is 
your  Society. 

[From  A.  X.  Clark,  Esq.] 
Fully  concurring  in  the  objects  of  the  Society,  I  shall  regard  it 
as  a  great  honor  to  be  enrolled  with  its  distinguished  members 
under  its  great  historic  name. 

[From  Rev.  Julius  H.  Seelye.] 

I  do  not  know  that,  in  the  pressure  of  other  duties,  I  shall  be 
able  to  render  the  Society  any  service  ;  but  its  objects  meet  my 
approval,  and  to  have  the  relation  to  it  which  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee propose,  will  be  agreeable  to  me,  if  I  do  not  thereby  incur 
responsibilities  beyond  my  power  to  fulfil. 


268  THE   WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL, 


REPORT    OF  COMMITTEE  OX  PERMANENT    ORGANIZATION. 

83  Equitable  Building, 

Boston,  October  18,  1882. 
To  the.  President  and  Officers  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  : 

The  committee  on  permanent  organization,  appointed  by  the 
Webster  Historical  Society  at  its  meeting  on  the  12th  inst.,  beg 
leave  to  suggest  that  the  great  success  of  the  Webster  Centennial 
celebration  at  Mars.hneld,  and  the  union  .of  so  many  of  the  large 
number  of  members  who  had  not  personally  met  before,  have  given 
rise  to  the  universal  opinion  and  desire  that  the  purposes  of  the 
Society  should  be  carried  out  on  a  much  larger  scale  than  was  at 
first  contemplated. 

Many  have  supposed  that  the  object  was  simply  to  perpetuate 
the  works  of  Webster,  as  the  Society  took  his  name  ;  but  its  pur- 
pose is  to  include  the  principles  taught  by  all  other  distinguished 
statesmen  who  have  taken  part  in  the  legislation  of  the  Republic, 
without  distinction  of  party.  It  is  proposed  to  publish  a  volume 
every  year  for  judicious  distribution,  which  shall  contain  well- 
digested  principles  of  government  in  such  form  as  to  interest 
statesmen  of  the  present  generation,  but  whose  object  shall  be 
more  particularly  for  the  use  of  the  rising  generation,  and  espe- 
cially young  statesmen  coming  forward  to  carry  on  the  government 
in  future.  It  has  been  thought  that  a  permanent  endowment  fund 
of  at  least  $100,000  should  be  raised,  the  income  of  which  should 
be  annually  expended  in  promoting  the  general  work  of  the  Society. 
Each  volume  published  will,  in  such  case,  contain  proper  selec- 
tions from  the  speeches  really  made,  touching  constitutional  prin- 
ciples, by  statesmen  in  the  past,  as  well  as  the  select  papers  read 
monthly  by  distinguished  constitutionalists,  who  shall  be  chosen 
for  the  purpose.  Thus  a  statesman's  library  will  be  formed  for 
the  use  of  all.  The  plan  for  raising  the  funds  has  not  yet  been 
determined  upon  ;  but  as  the  sum  cannot  be  raised  from  the  annual 
assessment  of  members  at  one  dollar  each  per  year,  it  is  thought 


THE   WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL.  269 

that  it  might  be  practicable  to  open  a  Founders'  subscription  list 

of  100  at  $500  each $50,000  00 

An  Endowment  Membership  of  100  at  $250  each  .  25,000  00 

And  a  Life  Membership  of  250  at  $100  each  .  25,000  00 

Total $100,000  00 

Which  would  make  the  sum  required.  This,  with  an  accumulative 
donative  library,  would  soon  enable  the  Society  to  meet  the  needs 
and  demands  of  the  public  in  the  proper  direction. 

We  regard  this  as  one  of  the  most  important  subjects  which  can 
claim  the  attention  of  the  American  public.  In  the  eloquent  lan- 
guage of  Gov.  Long  in  his  oration  on  the  fourth  of  July  last, 
"  Who  shall  determine  how  far  the  maintenance  of  the  integrity 
of  our  Union  will  depend  on  the  memory  of  Webster?  " 

It  is  not  expected  nor  desired  that  any  person  shall  feel  obliged 
to  subscribe  to  this  fund ;  for  we  do  not  desire  the  subscriptions 
of  any  save  those  who  feel  that  it  will  be  a  pleasure  and  a  satisfac- 
tion thus  to  become  identified  with  this  Society,  and  lend  substan- 
tial aid  to  the  work  that  is  about  to  be  undertaken. 

N.  W.  Ladd. 
Albert  Palmer. 
Stillman  B.  Allen. 
E.  S.  Tobey. 
Edward  Wyman. 
B.  P.  Smith. 


270 


THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 


CONCLUSION. 

IT  was  an  auspicious  beginning  for  the  Webster  Historical 
Society  to  celebrate  the  centenary  of  Daniel  Webster's 
birth  as  well  as  to  take  its  own  immediate  rise  on  his  farm,  and 
at  his  old  home,  in  the  town  of  Marshfield.     It  was  peculiarly 
fitting  that  the  Society  which  was  the  whilom  offspring  of 
his  own  patriotic  heart,  and  which  was  destined  to  gather  up 
and  perpetuate  his  memory  and  influence,  should  begin  its 
work  at  the  very  threshold  of  Webster's  tomb.     Thirty  years 
ago,  all  that  was  mortal  of  the  great  statesman  w^as  laid  there 
beside  the  dust  of  the  early  Pilgrim  fathers,  and  his  friends 
turned  away  in  speechless  sorrow  when  the  last  sad  funeral 
rites  had  been  pronounced.     They  knew  he  had  passed  away 
amid  great  misunderstandings  ;  that  the  passions  of  the  hour 
had  clouded  the  minds  of  his  countrymen,  to  his  great  and 
valued  services ;  that  misapprehensions  had  arisen,  and  that 
prejudices  had  sprung  up  which  time  alone  could  remove. 
But,  with  an  abounding  faith  in  the  future  and  in  the  abid- 
ing force  of  truth,  they  separated  in  silence  to  awTait  that  day 
when  his  justification  was  sure  to  come.     That  justification 
did  come  at  last.     It  came  through  the  fire  and  bloodshed  of 
a  four  years'  civil  war.     It  came  through  a  terrible  martyr- 
dom that  cost  the  country  the  lives  of  more  than  a  million  of 
her  best  citizens.     It  came  indeed  at  a  fearful  cost,  but  it 
came  none  the  less  surely  for  that.     The  morning  of  that 
long  lookecl-for  day  has  now  dawned.     January  18,  1882, 
saw  its  first  gray  light.     October  12,  1882,  was  the  noon- 
day of  its  glory,  and  saw  the  sun  of  Webster's  vindication  at 
the   zenith   of  its    brilliancy.     It   was    not   the   presence  at 
Marshfield  of  so  many  distinguished  persons  from  all  parts 


THE    WEBSTER   CENTENNIAL.  271 

of  the  country  that  did  the  work,  nor  yet  the  brief  though 
primitive  religious  exercises  at  the  tomb,  nor  was  it  the 
genuine  feeling  that  sought  and  found  expression  in  the 
after-dinner  speeches  in  the  tent.  What  served  most  to  re- 
suscitate his  memory,  and  to  clear  up  the  integrity  of  his 
fame  and  work,  was  the  reading  of  that  important  state  docu- 
ment called  the  Cabinet  Circular,  written  ten  years  before 
our  great  civil  conflict,  and  conceived  in  the  same  disinter- 
ested spirit  that  animated  his  famous  7th  of  March  speech  in 
1850.  In  it  Mr.  Webster  has  fully  asserted  "the  nullity  of 
secession  ordinances,  and  the  right  of  coercion,  sketching 
briefly  but  forcibly  his  well-known  views  of  the  true  inter- 
pretation of  the  Constitution,  and  declaring  the  duty  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States  to  be  prepared  to  resist  the 
first  overt  act  which  should  be  intended  to  bring  about  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union."  This  document  is  now  published 
for  the  first  time,  and  the  Webster  Historical  Society  has 
inaugurated  its  work  under  most  favorable  auspices.  By 
giving  it  to  the  public  at  such  a  moment,  and  by  a  timely 
visit  to  Webster's  grave,  it  has  acted  happily ;  for  the  act 
was  doubly  appropriate  both  because  of  the  time  as  well  as 
because  of  the  occasion.  At  no  time  since  his  death  could 
this  have  been  done  with  so  much  cdat  and  honor  to  him 
without  stirring  up  unpleasant  prejudices.  And  it  was 
eminently  befitting  that,  at  the  portals  of  the  tomb  where  his 
friends  had  bade  him  a  last  fond  adieu,  they  should  gather 
together  again  to  street  each  other  and  renew  their  homage 
to  that  "  grand  life  of  public  service  commemorated  in  this 
tardy  awakening  to  benefits  forgot." 

It  cannot  therefore  but  be  useful  to  direct  attention  here 
particularly  to  the  publication  of  this  document.  "  It  stamps 
Webster  anew,"  says  a  contemporary,  "as  a  patriot  to  whom 
the  unity  of  his  country  was  the  first  of  patriotic  aims.  It 
exhibits  him  in  a  new  light  as  an  interpreter  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  as  a  far-seeing  statesman.     The  view  which  he  took 


272  THE    WEBSTER    CENTENNIAL. 

is  that  now  generally  adopted  ;  but  it  was  his  merit  that  he 
took  it  earlier  than  others,  and  that  he  had  the  courage  lack- 
ing in  the  government  of  his  day  to  announce  it.  Its  effect 
will  be  to  add  still  further  to  a  reputation  which  is  second  to 
none  other  in  the  later  period  of  our  national  life." 

This  publication,  so  remarkable  in  itself,  and  bearing  so 
directly  upon  Webster's  reputation  as  a  patriot,  was  a  worthy 
beginning  of  the  special  work  undertaken  by  this  Society. 
Every  thought  and  expression,  every  opinion  it  contains, 
serves  to  set  forth  more  brightly  and  clearly  the  power  Wcb- 
ster  represents  to-day  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Union. 
He  is  now  a  recognized  force  among  the  higher  influences 
that  hold  the  Union  together ;  and  it  has  been  very  truly 
said  that,  in  the  growing  expression  of  this  power,  does  the 
inherent  virtue  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  lie.  Daniel 
Webster  is  not  only  the  defender,  but  he  must  likewise  be 
regarded  as  the  conservator,  of  the  Union.  In  this  light 
he  must  now  appear,  not  so  much  on  account  of  what  this 
paper  contains,  as  because  of  the  heretofore  meaning  of 
Webster's  life  and  thought  which  that  document  now  reveals. 
Things  that  in  his  day  were  magnified  into  undue  propor- 
tions by  the  passions  of  man,  have  since  shrunk  back  into 
their  true  size,  while  the  grandeur  of  his  statesmanship  and 
the  patriotism  of  his  views  now  loom  up  in  all  their  relative 
greatness  and  importance.  We  know  to-day  that  Webster 
truly  had  the  courage  of  his  opinions  ;  and  it  behooves  us 
now  to  build  a  worthy  monument  to  the  prophet  whom  our 
fathers  stoned.  This  Society,  begun  in  a  quiet,  unambitious 
maimer  four  years  ago,  has  arisen  to  its  present  grand  pro- 
portions through  the  logic  of  events,  and  from  a  spon- 
taneous and  widely  spread  enthusiasm  to  Webster's  memory. 
Truth  must  prevail.  And  with  such  a  beginning  behind  it, 
the  Webster  Historical  Society  may  well  look  forward  to  the 
future  with  an  amount  of  confidence  and  trust  measured  only 
by  time  and  the  zeal  and  wisdom  of  its  members. 


INDEX. 


Alden,Rev.  Ebenezer,  Address,  119, 120;  Extract  from  letter,  261 ;  Prayer. 

56-38. 
Allen,  Hon.  Stephen  M.,  Addresses.  68-91,  211-216,  238-241. 
Allen,  lion.  Stillinan  B.,  Reading  of  unpublished  manuscript,  102. 
Ancient  and  Bonorable's  reception  to  the  President.  0(5.  07;   Poster  of  the 

corps.  4(5.  -17. 
Anthony,  Hon.  II.  B.,  Extract  from  letter,  268. 
Arthur,  President.  Address.  100-102:   Letter.  205.  2(H). 

Barnard,  Henry.  Esq.,  Extract  from  letter,  200. 

Barrett,  Hon.  James.  Extract  from  letter.  267. 

Harrows.  G.  Bradley,  Esq.,  Extract  from  letter.  2(52. 

Bartlett,  Rev.  Samuel  ('..  Address.  120-124;  Extract  from  letter.  200. 

Bartlett,  Hon.  Sidney.  Extract  from  letter,  258. 

Hell.  Hon.  Charles  II..  Addresses,  112-117,  174-170;  Extract  from  letter. 

255. 
Bishop,  Hon.  Robert  P.,  Letter,  140. 

Blaine,  Hon.  James  (;.,  Letter.  20(5;  Extract  from  letter.  255. 
Bliss,  Cornelius  X..  Esq.,  Extract  from  letter.  267. 
Hunt  well.  Hon.  George  S..  Address.  138-141;  Extract  from  letter.  261. 
Bradbury,  Hon.  James  \\'..  Address,  108.  199. 
Brown,  Prof.  s.  <;..  Letter.  146. 
Brunswick  Hotel.  List  of  invited  guests.  32-35  ;  Reception,  30-32 ;  Ushers. 

32. 
Bullock,  Hon.  Alexander  IL.  Letter.  155. 

Cabinet  circular.  102-109. 

Capen,  Hon.  Nahum,  Extract  from  letter.  258. 

(  entennial.  see  Webster. 

Chamberlain.  (Jen.  Joshua  L..  Extract  from  letter.  250. 

Chamberlain.  Hon.  Mellen,  Extract  from  letter.  258. 

(handler.  Secretary.  Remarks  at  Eaneuil  Hall.  28. 

Clark,  A.  X..  Esq.,  Extract  from  letter,  2(57. 

Clarke.  Rev.  Dorus.  Extract  from  letter,  261. 

( Committees,  7.  8. 

Conant,  Hon.  Chester  ('..  Extract  from  letter.  2(50. 

Concord,  X.IL.  Celebration.  207. 

Conkling,  Hon.  Roscoe,  Letter.  142. 

Cummings,  Thomas   EL,  Remarks,  241-244:   Resolution  of  thanks.  147. 

148.' 
Curtis.  Hon.  Georffe  Tieknor,  Address.  193-198:    Letter.  143-145. 


11  INDEX. 

Curtis,  Mrs.,  Letter  from  Daniel  Webster  describing  his  home  at  Marsh- 
field.  43-45. 

Dartmouth,  Webster  Centennial  dinner  in  Boston,  208-210. 
Dawes.  Hon.  Henry  L..  Address.  109-112. 
Dennis,  Henry,  Esq..  Extract  from  letter.  264. 

Evarts.  Hon.  William  M..  Letter.  142. 
Exeter.  N.1L.  Celebration  at.  208. 

Faneuil  Ball,  Public  reception.  25-28. 
Farnham.  Rev.  Luther.  Extract  from  letter.  265. 
Franklin,  X.IL.  Commemorative  exercises,  236. 
Fuller.  Hon.  Henry  Weld.  Extract  from  letter,  260. 

Grant,  Gen.  Ulysses  S.,  Extract  from  letter,  257. 

Green,  Hon.  Samuel  A.,  Addresses.  118,  173;  Extract  from  letter,  259; 

Remarks  at  Faneuil  Hall,  27. 
Guests.  Arrangement  of.  at  Marshfield  dinner,  95.  96. 

Hague,  Rev.  William.  Extract  from  letter.  264. 

Haven.  Hon.  Franklin.  Address.  199;  Extract  from  letter,  261. 

Hudson,  Rev.  Henry  X..  LL.  D.,  Address.  226-235;  Extract  from  letter, 

263. 
Huntington,  Judge,  of  Indiana,  5. 
Hymn,  Original.  56. 

Invited  guests  at  the  Brunswick  reception.  32-35. 
Invited  guests  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society,  50,  51. 

Jewell.  Hon.  Marshall,  Extract  from  letter.  257. 

Jones,  C.  W.,  Address.  179-189. 

Joslin.  James  T..  Esq.,  Extract  from  letter.  265. 

Lincoln.  Hon.  F.  W..  Extract  from  letter.  260. 

Lincoln,  Secretary.  Remarks  at  Faneuil  Hall.  27. 

Line  of  inarch  at  Marshfield,  49.  50. 

Long.  Hon.  John  D.,  Address.  97-100;    Remarks  at  Centennial  dinner, 

1 62-1 66. 
Lord.  lion.  Otis  P.,  Extract  from  letter.  259. 

Loring.  Hon.  George  B.,  Address.  124-133;  Extract  from  letter.  261. 
Lunt.  Hon.  George,  Remarks,  201,  202. 

Marshfield.  Description  of.  36-38. 

Marshfield  Club.  Dinner  of.  154-157. 

Marston.  Hon.  George,  Extract  from  letter,  261. 

Membership.  248-257. 

Military  review.  24,  25. 

Miner,  Rev.  Dr.  A.  A..  Extract  from  letter.  257. 

Morton.  Hon.  Marcus.  Chief  Justice.  Letter.  146.  147. 


index.  iii 

Motley.  Thomas.  Esq.,  Ext  met  from  letter,  259. 

Xesmith.  Judge  Geo.  W..  Remarks,  2-14. 
Noyes,  II..  Esq..  Extract  from  letter.  264. 

Observance  at  Washington.  204.  205. 
Officers  of  the  Society.  8. 

rainier,  Hon.  Albert.  Reading  of  Address  of  Hon.  M.  P.  Wilder.  133- 

136;  Speech.  217-226. 
Perry.  Rev.  A.  L.,  Extract  from  letter.  262. 
Phillips,  Fred.  J.,  Extract  from  letter.  255. 
Pingree,  Hon.  Samuel  E.,  Extract  from  letter.  262. 
Poore.  Hon.  Ben.  Perley,  Extract  from  letter.  260. 
Porter,  Rev.  X..  Extract  from  letter,  255. 
Portsmouth.  X.IL.  Celebration,  208. 
Presidential  Party.  Arrival  in  Boston.  12;  Departure  from  Boston,  183; 

Departure  from  New  York,  11.  12;  List  of,  10. 
Preston.  J.  W.,  Esq.,  Extract  from  letter,  262. 
Prince.  Hon.  Frederick  O.,  Address.  158-162. 
Procession,  Order  of.  14-22;  Route  of.  20.  21. 
Programmes.  8.  9. 

Quincy,  Hon.  Josiah,  Extract  from  letter.  258. 

Read.  Thomas  Buchanan,  of  Cincinnati.  5. 

Reception  at  Webster  Mansion.  52-54. 

Resolution  of  thanks.  147.  148. 

Return  from  Marshfield,  149-151. 

Rice.  Hon.  Alexander  EL,  ex-Gov..  Extract  from  letter.  258. 

Rolfe.  Hon.  Henry  P..  Extract  from  letter.  264. 

Runnels.  Rev.  Moses  T..  Extract  from  letter,  263. 

Russell.  Hon.  Thomas.  Address.  135-138;  Extract  from  letter.  257. 

Salisbury.  X. II..  Exercises  at.  206.  207. 
Saltonstall,  Hon.  Leverett.  Remarks,  203. 
Sanborn,  Prof.  E.  D..  Extract  from  letter.  262. 
Sargent,  Gen.  Horace  Binney,  Extract  from  letter.  257 
Seelye,  Rev.  Julius  II..  Extract  from  letter.  267. 
Smith.  Hamilton,  of  Kentucky.  5. 
Stockbridge,  Hon.  Levi,  Extract  from  letter.  256. 
Swift.  (Jen.  John  L.,  Extract  from  letter.  263. 

Talbot.  Hon.  Thomas.  ex-Gov..  Extract  from  letter.  258. 
Thompson.  Hon.  Charles  P..  Remarks.  203.  204. 
Tomb.  Exercises  at.  54-58. 

Walker.  Hon.  Francis  A..  Extract  from  letter.  259. 
Warren.  Hon.  George  W  ..  Extract  from  letter.  256. 
Warren.  Hon.  G.  Washington.  Extract  from  letter.  259. 


IV  INDEX. 

Webster,  D.,  Description  of  his  home  at  Marshlield.  41-43. 

Webster.  I)..  Description  in  a  letter  from  his  own  pen.  43-45. 

Webster.  X.  8.,  Extract  from  letter.  263. 

Webster  Centennial  Celebration.  Preparations,  7. 

Webster  Historical  Society.  Organization,  6;  Origin.  5.  6. 

Webster,  .Mrs.  Fletcher.  Eeeeption  of  President  by.  52. 

Welling,  Prof.  J.  C.  Extract  from  letter.  2(55. 

Wheelock,  Hon.  Peter  S.,  Extract  from  letter.  203. 

White.  Charles  Austin,  Extract  from  letter.  256. 

Wightman,  Hon.  Joseph  M.,  Extract  from  letter,  261. 

Wilder.   Hon.  Marshall  P..  Addresses.  133-135.   190-192;   Extract  from 

letter.  257. 
Wilkinson.  Prof..  Poem.  02-94. 
Williamson.  Gen..  Address.  200.  201. 
Winsor.  Hon.  .Justin.  Esq.,  Extract  from  letter.  2(5(5. 
Winthrop,  Hon.  Robert  C.  Address.  167-173. 
Woodbury.  Hon.  Charles  Levi.  Remarks,  202.  203. 

Yale.  R.  M.,  Esq.,  Extract  from  letter.  2(53. 


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